

Ask HN: Why would you use a cloud IDE? - kolektiv

This question is genuinely asked. Over the last few years various companies have started work on cloud IDEs, with admittedly impressive results in many cases. But personally, I've never been able to really identify a motivation for me to use one. Perhaps this is because I'm not very web-centric in terms of the code I write.<p>I feel like I must be missing something significant if people are putting a lot of effort in to something, so how do other people feel? Is the cloud IDE approach scratching a real itch, or is it being done because it can be? (My admittedly slightly pejorative initial reaction a few years back).
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josephpmay
I see two reasons to use a cloud IDE:

1) Device independent. If you want to start writing code on your work
computer, work on it on your laptop when you get home, and debug it while at
your mother-in-law's house, using a cloud IDE makes this much easier than
having to sync files and have programs installed on all computers

2) Mobile. If you think of a breakthrough in your code when you only have your
smartphone or tablet on you, being able to access it and work on it on devices
that may not even support native development could be really useful.

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monkbent
#1 was a huge deal for me. I only use a cloud IDE for web development, and the
ability to edit something no matter where I am or what computer I'm using in
an environment I'm used to is simply awesome. It's had such an impact on me
that I'm moving everything I do to cloud services; the value of not just
having my data everywhere but the tools I'm used to everywhere is very
significant.

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mostlystatic
My main reason would be not having to set up my computer for development. When
you're new to an ecosystem it can be super painful to get set up.

Example: I use Python a lot, but had never used it with MySQL until yesterday.
I had MAMP installed and I just wanted a Python package to run queries. I
tried to install MySQL-Python, but it couldn't find mysql_config. So I find it
and update my PATH. Then it can't find some files. I google it and it turns
out MAMP MySQL doesn't include some parts and I need to install another
version of MySQL to make it work. It works now, but the MySQL Workbench
export/import feature isn't happy with the MySQL version number.

Especially since many open source projects are compiled from source and have
many dependencies I'd love an environment that just works.

