When I edit PHP, Python, Ruby, whatever code that is hosted on GitLab via their Web IDE, how am I supposed to see the result when it needs a whole stack with Linux, Apache and MySQL below it to run?
For instance if you need to change a value in a configuration file, you can make the change in a new branch, have the CI pass on it, check if every was fine, and merge/deploy as needed. All from the web interface.
I'm sure some people use it do crazy complex changes, but I see it as convenience for scope limited tasks more than anything.
GitHub is using Codespaces itself [0], which is a huge Rails app with tons of infrastructure behind it I’d assume.
[0]: https://github.blog/2021-08-11-githubs-engineering-team-move...
You're right, the client-side instance of VS Code is only a piece of the full "IDE" puzzle. You can learn more about our direction for providing server-side runtime on our Remote Development direction page: https://about.gitlab.com/direction/create/editor/remote_deve... More on that in the near future.