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Comment by bouke | Hacker News Reader

What is the use case for a hosted Visual Studio Code?

The real killer app is not using an IDE in the browser but using disposable, automated dev environments. I've written a blog post about:

https://dev.to/svenefftinge/continuous-dev-environments-the-...

(Disclaimer: I work on gitpod.io which is similar to Visual Studio Online)

Agreed! The on-demand dev environments are the real star here. Whether you use the web editor is up to you, since we also support working from your existing VS Code desktop setup as well. That said, we’ve found that having the option of a full-fidelity web editor, that’s fully interopable with VS Code desktop, can provide valuable flexibility for many use cases (e.g. making a quick edit when out of the office, doing a “rich” PR review in the browser).

I would like that. My work machine just crashed so I had to reimage it and then install all dev tools. Getting all the SQL server installs, Visual studio and a lot of other tools and their configuration back takes several days. It would be nice if we could set up a template for a full dev environment that everybody can use. I know a lot of companies have that but you need management to understand the issue which is often not the case.

I use Nix for this. I have a library of building blocks that I import and customize to make `shell.nix` files, and then use nix-shell. Unfortunately, the Nix design patterns (though not the language, really) are esoteric and rather unstable, at the mercy of nixpkgs.

If there were a "scene" around nixpkgs the way there is around apt PPAs, everyone could just put a shell.nix in their Githubs and onboarding would be instant. Still, I wish someone would get behind a FOSS project like nixpkgs.

> What is the use case for a hosted Visual Studio Code?

The same as Amazon cloud9, and other online IDE, it's about not having to install any SDK on your own computer to develop apps, which is really handy in the era of cheap SSD laptops and mobility.

I have used cloud9 for years, unfortunately the editor itself hasn't had a real update for a long time. So VS online is a welcome addition.

Congrats to the VSO team at Microsoft.

Yeah amazon basically froze cloud9 development last time i checked, i don't care enough to shift to whatever amazon has done to the thing...

There is a startup here in Austin trying to create a business around the idea:

https://coder.com/

I think some people see value in it as a security feature, or ease of development environment setup. There are also collaborative code editing features. You can both get into a file and type in it at the same time. You can get into your project and work on it from any machine, anywhere, even a phone, potentially.

Personally though, I would never take a job where you do most of your coding in the cloud.

> ease of development environment setup

That's a pretty compelling reason for me. There are some projects (like Chrome, Firefox, or even OpenSceneGraph) that aren't trivial to compile entirely from source. It would be pretty sweet to have a ready-to-build environment with the project and all dependencies one click away.

Agreed, it is compelling. But not enough to overcome my abhorrence for adding latency to the development process!

I wouldn't mind having that as an option though. Like, laptop in for repair, use the online dev environment. Traveling and have to fix a critical bug, hop on the cloud environment.

You should always have the option to run locally and ofcourse you can already do what you want via remote desktop/vnc/etc. I do and it works well (it's really fast usually for me; it feels faster than the mbp I have because when something is compiling, my local laptop doesn't feel like it's turning into a slow stream of lava).

Web-assembly might help some here; it should be possible for the devs to split this up, depending on the tasks, to client and serverside, maybe depending on your computer specs and on the requirements of the task at hand. That should fix the latency for tasks that need to be instant (code completion) and tasks that can be a few seconds/minutes (compiling/packing). I am aware these are mixed tasks while developing so clever use should be made of what can be done locally and what should be done remotely.

Being able to code on my iPad Pro would be one for me.

We’ve seen significant interest in folks wanting greater “device flexibility”, and so we’re excited to allow devs to use the tools they love from anywhere, and on any device. Since the browser is the universal app distribution platform, having a full-fidelity VS Code-based web editor, along with a powerful compute runtime, provides you with a companion tool (along with your desktop client) to choose the right tool for each task.

Same here. The battery life is stellar on that thing; being a productive coder there would really help.

I assume that if you're trying to do this, you've got a keyboard attached to your iPad - I think I'd rather stick forks in my eyes than try to code with an on-screen keyboard. So at that point, why not just use a laptop?

No need for two devices? I‘m waiting until I can ditch my notebook and have a tablet for everything, including coding

I build Swift playgrounds on my iPad. With great code completion using an on screen keyboard is fine for small prototypes.

I wish I could simply say a new variable or function and have it inserted.

The Apple folio keyboard is actually really good. Even compared to my 12" Macbook the 11" iPad Pro is still more portable, plus I use the Apple Pencil a lot.

Perhaps this makes development on Chromebooks (or similar devices) "more possible".

I'm struggling to think of something else though. It sure feels like forward thinking.

Had a look at a chromebook for dev recently. I wanted to be enthusiastic....but 1366 x 768 and eMMC storage. I just can't.

(Got a 2nd hand 2016 zenbook instead - wohoo 3200 x 1800 res)

Edit code directly on Azure Services (e.g. Azure Functions) and real-time test the results of the changes. Aside from that just convenience for developers if you want to develop across multiple devices with internet connectivity (or using an iPad's web-browser), and as an alternative to a remote VM/Nano on a terminal.

The use case for VSCode Online is the same as any other remote development environment, combine it with deployment workflows and or integrated services like Azure and it practically sells itself. Just like Slack the secret sauce here isn't the service itself, it is how it ties into everything else.

What other remote development environments exist? I can only think of cloud9.

Nano/vim/emacs/etc over a remote (SSH) terminal, remote VM, or remote session via other means (e.g. VNC/RDC/etc). People use Visual Studio itself remotely via VMs and RDC.

Yep, I use Remotix on a remote mac on my ipad pro. It works well mostly. When the bandwidth is not sufficient, it really drives one up a wall ofcourse...

When you spend 1000s of dollars to get the dev experience we had at the dawn of the age of computing lol

Yes :) Isn't modern computing excellent?

One quite significant difference though; portability.

Also not quite $1000s; $800 for the ipad (and a $400 one would do fine) and $20/mo for the mac. Beats a mbp most of the time in a modern 4g/wifi environment. Ofcourse there are many caveats; embedded programming, game programming, mobile app testing etc. But I still do about 60-70% (depending) on it; it's great for building / testing / deploying API's and some months that's all I do.

I think embedded programming would be possible once web browsers start supporting USB devices.

Or any editor/IDE via ssh -X (the window's show locally while the app runs on the server)

From the site...

  Whether you’re working on a long-term project, a short-lived feature branch, or want to quickly review a pull request, Visual Studio Online can help you be more productive by providing a fully configured development environment in minutes. By pointing to a Git repo, Visual Studio Online sets up everything you need to focus on being productive:
  
  * Source code
  * Runtimes
  * Linters & debuggers
  * Extensions

Use a chromebook? No security woes.

Lock-in and future abuse when you can't escape the relationship.

I'm sure there's a value proposition in there somewhere, but looking at the way "software as a service" type models have been abused once users are committed and specifically looking at Microsoft's track record with things like the Zune DRM debacle, I think you'd have to be out of your mind to transition your company or team over to this.

I recently transitioned to office 365 a year or two ago. Boy that was a huge mistake. Even though I still have 5 shares available, apparently they require office 365 users to login once a month, or they'll lock you out of your own software. Which makes zero sense because since I still have shares, there's not really a viable way to abuse that.

This recently screwed me during the PG&E shutoffs and easily cost me $1000 in downtime for me and my team.

Imagine you are in a cave, for no apparent reason, and your computer is no where to be found. The only computer there is a n old school terminal that is somehow running IE11. Your colleague commits something with tabs instead of spaces and you get the notification on your phone. Now you can easily login to VSCode online to re-indent everything with spaces, commit and push it back up, all through your web browser.

Obviously the way to Captain Kirk yourself out of this Kobayashi Maru situation would be to use the ancient terminal to bash your head in.

I seem to recall that one ending differently. But I guess since we're mixing & matching...fair play

> Imagine you are in a cave

I thought you were going with a Platonic parable here, but then you threw in IE 11 into the mix :-(

in this cave you need internet access :)

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