For those who don’t read slashdot and haven’t had the misfortune of being pestered about this by me, Mozilla Labs has released one of the most amazing products that ever will be: Bespin (Code in the Cloud).  I highly recommend watching the presentation (just wish the video was higher-res so you could actually read what was on the screen … )

What is Bespin?   In simple words, it’s a web-based IDE (based on eclipse).  You log in and you are presented with the dashboard.   At the moment, it’s really just a file browser.   You can created projects and add/edit/delete files (html/js/css are the only ones that have context highlighting at the moment) to these projects.  Basically what one does in a basic IDE.

Bespin Dashboard

Bespin Editor

What I love the best?  It keeps my files open where they were when I logged out.  Meaning I can shift from computer to computer and still have the same files open just as it was one I last logged on.   Wow.  I can also export a project as a zip or tgz archive.   Which is awesome (I can get the code out).   If there was a way to integrate these projects with local SVN on the hosting server it would be even better.   The command line is such a nice idea.  Combined with their keyboard shortcut Ctrl-J, I don’t need to use the mouse.   I love that function.  Just love it.

What I don’t love.   Speed.   It’s alpha software so I expect this to be resolved when I either run it on my own servers (which I can do see these instructions) or when Mozilla puts more horsepower behind it.  It could be something to do with the multiple tabs I have open in my browser too with the memory requirements of Canvas … I have no idea.  I just know it’s virtually unusable at the moment.  Secondly, I don’t have access to the same commands I have in the file editor that I have in the dashboard.   For example, I can’t logout or create a new file from the dashboard — or at least I haven’t figure out how.   This can be done from the command line on the editor page.   Also, I have a pencil stuck in the middle of browser screen on other pages now … kind of annoying.   However, once again, it’s an alpha project.   I’m not so thrilled with where it is today, but where it will be tomorrow.

Think of real-time collaboration possibilities of something like this?   What if I could “shared” a project with others.   I can use something like skype and talk to them while I make changes to the code that they see real-time.   Think of the teaching functionality of that … and the spying capability.  QA guys/mentors don’t have to wait until you’re finished.   They could just passively monitor your coding as if they were sitting the cube looking over your shoulder.    With IM/Skype/Whatever, the abilities to have spread out teams collaborating from all over the globe (usefully) could be real in a later version of Bespin (or the like).

“Why do you have standards?   If you don’t, a user says I like Joe’s program,
but not Steve’s.  Another user says the exact opposite.  What we want a user to say is Steve’s and joe’s programs are both the same, and they both suck.  That’s standardization.”

– Ted Witiuk (Oracle Instructor)

To the bastard who threw a half eaten burrito on my car,

People say one should turn the other cheek.   They also say the best revenge is living a good life.   They are, as you might guess, idiots.  The best revenge is revenge.   I will find you;  I will pay you back ten-fold.   Even if you manage to escape my grasp, Karma is my winged bitch; pray I find thee first.