Cloud based IDEs to replace desktop development tools in five years

Grazed from The Server Side.  Author: Jason Tee.

Organizations are constantly looking at ways that they can creatively leverage cloud computing and subsequently reduce their operating costs, which is why Tyler Jewell, CEO of Codenvy, had our full attention when he shared his vision of the future of coding in the cloud. "We believe that in five years, there will be no viable reason for developers to develop on a desktop ever again." If you initially scoff at that idea, you’re not alone. On the face of it, there seems to be no way that developing in the cloud could ever be as fast, interactive or enjoyable as developing on your local hardware. The simple physics of the equation mean latency will always be higher if you are working on a remote platform.

According to Tyler, latency issues aren’t as big of a barrier as you might suppose. He boasts that certain workflows can actually perform better in the cloud by taking advantage of cloud resources for things like continuous compilation, incremental compiles, and even thorny parallel compilation problems. However, what developers really need to consider is the bigger picture of what’s slowing the entire development process down – and what could speed it up…

Simple latency is only one of many factors that determine the overall speed of development. We have to think like Al Pacino holding forth as football coach Tony D’Amato in Any Given Sunday, "The inches we need are everywhere around us!" In the same way, the seconds and minutes we need to have a fast, seamless and enjoyable development experience are everywhere around us. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look…

Read more from the source @ http://www.theserverside.com/feature/Cloud-based-IDEs-to-replace-desktop-development-tools-in-five-years