Today it seems as everything is moving “to the cloud”, starting from software applications and data storage to tools used to create the same. Thus, programmers were not left out of the cloud revolution meaning there are quite some alternatives offering to programmers online Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) where they can write, run and share their code.
Let’s see 5 great IDEs that let programmers code in the cloud.
1. Wonderfl
It allows you to write, compile, run and share ActionScript applications online. It’s a useful sandbox for cloud Flash development with an emphasis on gaming and a strong community aspect. The 3 major features are:
- “Build from scratch”, starting to write Action Script3.
- “Fork” to copy and edit ActionScript created by other users.
- “Download” computer to save ActionScript of your choice to your computer.
Wonderfl is free to use!
2. Codeanywhere
Codeanywhere offers a limited, ad-supported free plan, as well as unlimited plans with prices running from $49.99 per year.
3. Cloud9
Cloud9 is a state-of-the-art IDE that runs in your browser and lives in the cloud, allowing you to run, debug and deploy applications from anywhere, anytime. Cloud9’s tag line is “Your code anywhere, anytime”. The Cloud IDEis being used by over 30,000 developers, and is seen as one of the leading companies in the emerging Development as a Service (DaaS) sector. The IDE supports HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, but also includes support for Ruby and PHP. Of the online IDEs, Cloud9 is the only one on this list that supports Mercurial as well as Git. In fact, GitHub and BitBucket support is baked in from the start and you can actually create your Cloud9 IDE account by logging in through one of those services.
Cloud9 IDE is free for projects that will be publicly visible, but for private projects the cost is $15 a month.
Coderun Studio IDE is free to use, but if you choose to use the cloud deployment service, it will cost from $10 – $169 per month once your 14-day free trial is over.
Orion is an open source project. It is available as downloadable local server, or through a cloudhosted version, orionhub.org.
To wrap up, online IDEs are changing the way programmers work and do business. It is faster, better and more efficiently. Maybe they do not replace most of developers’ day – to – day tasks and do not replace traditional desktop IDEs completely, but still they are great addition to any developer’s toolset. Furthermore, as the state of cloud computing is constantly improving the online IDEs will be probably improving too, offering better and richer set of features. Nevertheless we should mention some disadvantages of online IDEs such as data loss, code security and requirement for suitable Internet connection.
What is your experience with online IDEs? If you have any suggestion or recommendation, please share it in Comments section!