Five Best Online IDE’s – Making the switch to a Chromebook
Having the option to program online is not just essential in my ‘Making the switch to a Chromebook’ series of articles I’m writing simulating the Chromebook experience in a Chrome Browser. It’s equally essential to the entire premise that a Chromebook or cloud computing device has any validity in the foreseeable future, as the need for Google Docs is. It can’t do without.
As a blogger you mostly depend on your own skills to maintain your blog, maybe even to build it. At the very least you’ll want to tweak the code every now and again to keep your blog afloat. And if you’re anything like me you’ll do most of your writing and quick code editing away from your home office and trusted setup. In other words, if we’re gonna buy a Chromebook it’s going to be the machine doing most of the work, it should be able to handle that.
There are quite a lot of programming languages out there, so I will be specific in what I seek. I need to be able to work on my website’s CSS and create, edit and store PHP, C++ and maybe HTML5 files online. It would be nice if I could find some kind of sandbox or service that offers that option where you can trial run your code. Preferably in the same IDE (integrated development environment), and for free.
Like I just don’t want to learn I was again completely surprised by how advanced the developments are and what great quality services you can find. Not only can I get free apps for programming online in the languages I want, the ones I tested also performed better, were more user friendly and had a richer set of features than I had imagined possible.
When you’re looking to move your coding to the web, do give the following five IDE’s a bit of your time. Try them out. I’m sure that one of them will be of your liking. Do not forget to F11 for the full screen experience, that really makes it better!
Shift Edit
It blew my mind. An online PHP, Ruby, Java, HTML, CSS and JavaScript editor with built-in (S) FTP and the ability to store your files in Dropbox! It does everything you expect from an IDE like full syntax highlighting and it handles easy too. It literally took me only 1 minute to set the IDE up on the ChromebookHQ website after which I could immediately start editing my site. In design mode, or split pane or just code, you choose. Find the app here.
Cloud IDE
Again, awesome! Supported languages are HMTL, CSS, XML, Javascript, Groovy, Java, JSP, Ruby and PHP. An extensive online IDE which makes programming on a professional level certainly possible. To help you get started their site comes with some sample projects, provides extensive user documentation such as tutorials, video demos, webinar archives, product screenshot galleries, datasheets, features and benefits tables and more. It’s hosted development environment enables teams to collaboratively build gadgets, mashups, REST APIs, and HTML5 / JavaScript applications. Find the app here.
Source Lair
A deceptively simple IDE which you can use to write code in C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran 90/95, Javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML, and Pascal everywhere. How far you can go with it I do not know, but for the novice C++ coder this is certainly a good solution. You can also use SourceLair for its highlighted editing capabilities for Python, Ruby, Java, HTML ( with previewing ), CSS, Javascript and PHP. Find the app here.
Cloud9
Without a doubt the IDE with the best user interface I’ve seen so far. Perhaps the main reason why I am so enthusiastic about Cloud9. Not to say that it’s lacking on other parts, definitely not. In addition it offers seamless integration with the two most popular web-based hosting services where you can find full software development projects and host Github and Bitbucket. And to sum up there’s collaboration, you can edit, run, and debug your code live and much more. Find the app here.
Codeanywhere
It’s in the name.. Codeanywhere lets you code anywhere, without the need to bring anything along with you. Just install Codeanywhere in Chrome, and all your servers, files, everything is waiting for you, even the files you left open will be open when you login again. Best of all everything is synchronized with your Codeanywhere.net account. It offers: FTP Client, PHP Editor, HTML Editor, CSS Editor, Javascript Editor, XML Editor and a bunch more. Find the app here.
Conclusion to date
These five IDE’s are all just very good tools in their own right. Yes, I prefer some over others. But that’s more due to what it is I use them for than that the others wouldn’t be as good. Overall I can say that what I summed up in my previous post is all possible. It’s that good that I myself have switched over these past couple of days from coding locally to coding online.
Up Next
I really don’t know what to check out next. I believe I’ve covered the most important things so far! Let’s go back to my mind map from post number one and see what I’ve forgotten. In the mean time let me just ask you to leave any comment if you so wish. Maybe you’ve got a good idea for my challenge to test.
Have fun Chroming and until next time!
Tagged: Best, Featured, IDE, Online IDE, programming online
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Great article -
Quick note – your link to Shift / Edit is actually pointing to Cloud IDE
Also – looks like Shift / Edit doesn’t support the Dropbox syncing anymore -
Thanks again for the great article -
Peace!
Hi Mark, thank you so much for pointing out the incorrect link, I really appreciate that. It’s now fixed.
On your point to Shift / Edit no longer supporting syncing, I did a quick search on their site”, http://shiftedit.net/. The second Top Feature as listed today says: “Access and publish files through FTP/SFTP and Dropbox”. So it seems to have at least some support. Does your comment have anything to do with the changes Dropbox itself made concerning the Public Folder (or lack thereof), effective with new Dropbox accounts?
I’m the author behind ShiftEdit. We haven’t dropped any dropbox functionality – so not sure what is meant by this.
Thanks for including ShiftEdit!
Dear Adam, thank you for your reply here. Great to hear that ShiftEdit will continue to provide the excellent service and features we’ve come to love.
May sound weird, but I’m seriously thinking about moving to a Chromebook and I design wordpress sites. Do you see any problems using wordpress on Chrome? I’d need to be able to edit css files either on the hosted server, or download via FTP, edit and reupload. Would need to be able to login to wordpress sites and edit/upload content. Lastly would need to be able to edit images (but you covered that in your other review!)
Thanks in advance. This really is the only thing left before I drop the hammer and buy that bad boy!
Thanks for the article.
Have a wonderful day.
I use ShiftEdit and I like it except that it lacks a validating XML editor. By that I mean I am not prompted with allowed tags when I go to add an element. For the frameworks with which I work, ofbiz.apache.org and moqui.org, which are highly dependent on XML config and scripting files, this is a problem. Do you know if any of the other IDEs support that or if there is an online XML editor that does not cost and arm and a leg that does this?
I’ve got a somewhat related question. Is the Chromebook a good laptop for computer science courses? Learn programming, etc.?
I’ve got the Samsung 11.6-inch Chromebook (Wi-Fi) and found it a very reasonable solution for basic programming between lab sessions with a workstation desktop.
Compared to the other light-weight alternatives, macbook air, ultrabooks, and some of the lighter-weight 11′ laptops, I think it stands near the top in terms of value if you are inclined to tinker.
Bear in mind you also gain an immense amount of utility from installing a reasonably large SD card and dual-booting linux.
Hi Percy, I’m j interested took hear what distro you’re running. Would you like to share that?
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