9 ms·

Is it only a coincidence that real-time collaboration is being announced both for Atom and VS Code (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15704376 https://news.y

Is it only a coincidence that real-time collaboration is being announced both for Atom and VS Code (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15704376 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15704376) at the same time?

Egidius 9y ago
I was just noticing the same, looking at my HN feed. It's higly remarkable, to say the least.
__BrianDGLS__ 9y ago
Came here to make the same comment :D
JPKab 9y ago
The fact that VS Code's version isn't ready yet, and Atom's is makes me think that Microsoft wanted to respond to Atom's announcement. But I honestly have no idea if that's the case. Just pure speculation. Edit: Atom's announcement was yesterday. Microsoft's was today. That further fuels my speculative hunch. :)
- bad_user 9y ago
  Microsoft is not known for finesse in their marketing tactics. Just had a déjà vu with Microsoft's NetPC, announced just after Sun Microsystem's Network Computers. That said, I do like VS Code very much. Gave Atom a try, but it felt sluggish and its add-ons were very fragile.
  - g051051 9y ago
    VS Code is certainly neat, but with the rush to cram everything into it, it's starting to feel more like emacs than vi.
    - zimablue 9y ago
      But?
      - g051051 9y ago
        Just making the point that it went from a simple text editor to a much more full-featured IDE wanna-be. That's a bit of a paradigm shift to me.
        petre 9y ago
        That's why I've been using Atom instead. Since 1.17 or so it got quite usable and it's getting better with every iteration. Nowhere near as fast as Sublime Text but usable for daily coding. I disabled the git plugin because we're using fossil. I hope it doesn't become an IDE like VS Code. At least they made the IDE packages separate.
        jorangreef 9y ago
        Regarding fossil, do you use fossil for tickets and self-hosting? How well do fossil tickets work compared to Github issues? Do you use any custom themes for fossil tickets?
        petre 9y ago
        We used tickets somewhat and we are self hosting through a nginx proxy in order to log the http activity and proxy over https. The ticketing has markdown support. We use a custom theme, not for tickets but for the whole repo. Fossil tickets are only used internally, we use osticket regular ticketing. There is also a service for hosting fossil repos called Chisel, but it's nowhere near as useful as Github. http://chiselapp.com/ http://chiselapp.com/
        jorangreef 9y ago
        Thanks!
- amadeusw 9y ago
  Microsoft employee here. Today is also the Connect conference. My colleagues who worked on live share knew all along that Connect is their deadline. Which makes me curious, does Github know what Microsoft is going to announce at their conference, or did Microsoft knew what Github is building?
  - atmos 9y ago
    It looks like one of the main authors of atom is presenting today at QConSF too. Seems like dumb luck. :D
    - haacked 9y ago
      Yeah, appears to be dumb luck. You don't put together branding and a demo of real-time collaborative editing in a day.
      - twitchard 9y ago
        My hack-a-thon team did it in 48 hours this weekend, lol. https://www.nodeknockout.com/entries/35-nodeist-colony https://www.nodeknockout.com/entries/35-nodeist-colony
        IMTDb 9y ago
        You put developed "the world's most advanced code collaboration experience" as advertised by the website in 48 hours ? Can I hire you somewhere ?
      - sixdimensional 9y ago
        I prefer to imagine that great minds think alike! :) Or more scientifically speaking, the theory of multiple discovery [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery
        ReverseCold 9y ago
- nikon 9y ago
  Are you sure Atom's was yesterday? The blog posted is dated 15 November.
- zardo 9y ago
  I have a hard time imagining that Microsoft would make a decision like that in under 24 hours.
acgIssues 9y ago
The main reason I read this thread was to compare both announcements.
martinsuchan 9y ago
Wouldn't it be nice for VS Live Share and Teletype to be compatible on protocol-level?
- frizkie 9y ago
  That would be nice. https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/
  - TimTheTinker 9y ago
    I don't think VS Live Share counts as a standard, though. :)
- josephg 9y ago
  (Several years of realtime editing experience reporting in) Plain text CRDT and OT systems are often mutually adaptable. Even if they aren't directly compatible, with a bit of work it'll probably be possible to adapt from one realtime editing protocol to the other. Of course, in the medium to long term having a standard for OT/CRDT operations that works in a lot of source code editors would be fantastic.
api 9y ago
Why is there breakneck competition here to offer the best free code editor?
- adtac 9y ago
  I know, right? Vim and emacs should ease off a little :)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- alfonsodev 9y ago
  I guess that when users make the habit of using the free tool, then the company that provides it can easily embed other convenience habits that could potentially lead to a future sale. Both Microsoft and Github have commercial products to sell at a later stage, VSCode has now integrations with Azure, I don't know about Github integrations on Atom but the potential is there. When the user is using your free tool you are one step closer to provide something additional that is so convenient that is hard to say no, even if is paid.
  - bruno207 9y ago
    They're working on making Atom + Github to be a 1-1 association in your Git workflow. See https://github.atom.io/ https://github.atom.io/
- smacktoward 9y ago
  Ballmer's Law: "Developers, developers, developers." If you want to be a platform vendor, you need to have developers. Lose the developers and you lose the business. Microsoft has been a platform vendor for a long time. VSCode is part of their argument for why they should continue to be one.
- keithnz 9y ago
  What I'm interested in is whether Live Code Share is a free service.... feels like it might be a paid service. Or limited free then pay? Not sure. It's also for visual studio. Also be interesting if someone makes a teletype plugin for VSCode :)

Egidius 9y ago

I was just noticing the same, looking at my HN feed. It's higly remarkable, to say the least.

__BrianDGLS__ 9y ago

Came here to make the same comment :D

JPKab 9y ago

The fact that VS Code's version isn't ready yet, and Atom's is makes me think that Microsoft wanted to respond to Atom's announcement. But I honestly have no idea if that's the case. Just pure speculation. Edit: Atom's announcement was yesterday. Microsoft's was today. That further fuels my speculative hunch. :)

bad_user 9y ago
Microsoft is not known for finesse in their marketing tactics. Just had a déjà vu with Microsoft's NetPC, announced just after Sun Microsystem's Network Computers. That said, I do like VS Code very much. Gave Atom a try, but it felt sluggish and its add-ons were very fragile.
- g051051 9y ago
  VS Code is certainly neat, but with the rush to cram everything into it, it's starting to feel more like emacs than vi.
  - zimablue 9y ago
    But?
    - g051051 9y ago
      Just making the point that it went from a simple text editor to a much more full-featured IDE wanna-be. That's a bit of a paradigm shift to me.
      - petre 9y ago
        That's why I've been using Atom instead. Since 1.17 or so it got quite usable and it's getting better with every iteration. Nowhere near as fast as Sublime Text but usable for daily coding. I disabled the git plugin because we're using fossil. I hope it doesn't become an IDE like VS Code. At least they made the IDE packages separate.
        jorangreef 9y ago
        Regarding fossil, do you use fossil for tickets and self-hosting? How well do fossil tickets work compared to Github issues? Do you use any custom themes for fossil tickets?
        petre 9y ago
        We used tickets somewhat and we are self hosting through a nginx proxy in order to log the http activity and proxy over https. The ticketing has markdown support. We use a custom theme, not for tickets but for the whole repo. Fossil tickets are only used internally, we use osticket regular ticketing. There is also a service for hosting fossil repos called Chisel, but it's nowhere near as useful as Github. http://chiselapp.com/ http://chiselapp.com/
        jorangreef 9y ago
        Thanks!
amadeusw 9y ago
Microsoft employee here. Today is also the Connect conference. My colleagues who worked on live share knew all along that Connect is their deadline. Which makes me curious, does Github know what Microsoft is going to announce at their conference, or did Microsoft knew what Github is building?
- atmos 9y ago
  It looks like one of the main authors of atom is presenting today at QConSF too. Seems like dumb luck. :D
  - haacked 9y ago
    Yeah, appears to be dumb luck. You don't put together branding and a demo of real-time collaborative editing in a day.
    - twitchard 9y ago
      My hack-a-thon team did it in 48 hours this weekend, lol. https://www.nodeknockout.com/entries/35-nodeist-colony https://www.nodeknockout.com/entries/35-nodeist-colony
      - IMTDb 9y ago
        You put developed "the world's most advanced code collaboration experience" as advertised by the website in 48 hours ? Can I hire you somewhere ?
    - sixdimensional 9y ago
      I prefer to imagine that great minds think alike! :) Or more scientifically speaking, the theory of multiple discovery [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery
      - ReverseCold 9y ago
nikon 9y ago
Are you sure Atom's was yesterday? The blog posted is dated 15 November.
zardo 9y ago
I have a hard time imagining that Microsoft would make a decision like that in under 24 hours.

acgIssues 9y ago

The main reason I read this thread was to compare both announcements.

martinsuchan 9y ago

Wouldn't it be nice for VS Live Share and Teletype to be compatible on protocol-level?

frizkie 9y ago
That would be nice. https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/
- TimTheTinker 9y ago
  I don't think VS Live Share counts as a standard, though. :)
josephg 9y ago
(Several years of realtime editing experience reporting in) Plain text CRDT and OT systems are often mutually adaptable. Even if they aren't directly compatible, with a bit of work it'll probably be possible to adapt from one realtime editing protocol to the other. Of course, in the medium to long term having a standard for OT/CRDT operations that works in a lot of source code editors would be fantastic.

api 9y ago

Why is there breakneck competition here to offer the best free code editor?

adtac 9y ago
I know, right? Vim and emacs should ease off a little :)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
alfonsodev 9y ago
I guess that when users make the habit of using the free tool, then the company that provides it can easily embed other convenience habits that could potentially lead to a future sale. Both Microsoft and Github have commercial products to sell at a later stage, VSCode has now integrations with Azure, I don't know about Github integrations on Atom but the potential is there. When the user is using your free tool you are one step closer to provide something additional that is so convenient that is hard to say no, even if is paid.
- bruno207 9y ago
  They're working on making Atom + Github to be a 1-1 association in your Git workflow. See https://github.atom.io/ https://github.atom.io/
smacktoward 9y ago
Ballmer's Law: "Developers, developers, developers." If you want to be a platform vendor, you need to have developers. Lose the developers and you lose the business. Microsoft has been a platform vendor for a long time. VSCode is part of their argument for why they should continue to be one.
keithnz 9y ago
What I'm interested in is whether Live Code Share is a free service.... feels like it might be a paid service. Or limited free then pay? Not sure. It's also for visual studio. Also be interesting if someone makes a teletype plugin for VSCode :)