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This seems like a lot more than an "IDE in the cloud" -- they have this great monetization angle of letting you publish your apps directly into their "App Store
by rkalla 15y ago
This seems like a lot more than an "IDE in the cloud" -- they have this great monetization angle of letting you publish your apps directly into their "App Store" (something like Google App Engine but also a store front for customers?) and apps that people "purchase" through the app store have the added benefit of allowing you to automatically roll out updates to them in this controlled fashion.
If these were client-only JS apps, the idea of auto-update makes no sense, but given that this is all geared at client/server apps all written in JS, deploying that into an app-engine-esque execution environment that also doubles as an app store... that's a really creative idea.
For example, imagine if Amazon had an "App Store" front end for all the commercial apps on EC2 that wanted to integrate with it? Or Google App Engine did?
Would make for a very cool discovery method for customers to find cool apps and add a level of convenience for both the developer to notify/communicate with their customers as well as the customers to learn about new apps, get notified in a unified way of new features in their favorite apps, etc.
ASIDE: When I first heard Apple was doing a Mac App Store, I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. After using it, I can safely say I am an idiot and it's fantastically convenient.
I've come around on this whole app-store-for-all-sorts-of-crap idea... when done right, they can be a really nice thing. That being said, I am not looking forward to a future where I juggle 10 of them, 1 from each major vendor and one for each cell carrier. There is a limit.
- justincormack 15y agoGoogle App Engine does have one. But it makes no sense for an IDE to have an App store. If they want to make an app store they need to get an angle for consumers not for developers.
- rkalla 15y agoThe App Store is two parts -- there is the developer facing part where you publish into it and the consumer facing portion for discovery right? Apple's mobile and Mac App Store work this way. Amazon's app store, google marketplace, etc. etc. I think the concept of an app store implies "developer and consumer-facing pieces". Maybe I'm missing the point you were making? I think it's a really progressive look at software development to include the deployment/sales part of deployment directly into the IDE. I imagine the ecosystem around Java would have been considerably different if 12 years ago NetBeans (and later Eclipse 1.0) had shipped with a Sun-managed client app store right out of the gate. Remember the whole idea behind commercial Java Beans and Applets for sale? That might have actually worked had there been a central repository for all that with sufficient discovery tools. Combining the app store and execution container idea all into one is just the next step of services like Google App Engine, Heroku and Elastic Beanstalk I think. 10 years ago the idea of App Engine would have seemed silly, now it's common place and hugely desired. 10 years from now, having a deployment container that doesn't directly help me sell or market my app... well that might seem like an inconvenience to me as the developer.
- justincormack 15y agoApple got the customers first, that drove developer demand not a lot of people using XCode, was what I meant. Sun could have had a market, it is true, but if it had been via the IDE they could have lost to to IBM with Eclipse. It makes no sense tying these in, when there are standard application containers that are IDE independent.
- rkalla 15y agoGotcha, thanks for clarifying. I agree the demand has to come from the consumer end first no matter how hard devs push out.
- endergen 15y agoI'm not following why it makes no sense? Just like the guy above me said, it's smart to provide the full services: Help build, deploy, update, and sell software. Having deep integration generally makes for a smoother process.