I think the real key here is not ide friendliness, but "compiler as a service." The compiler, by definition, is already capable of understanding our code. If th

I think the real key here is not ide friendliness, but "compiler as a service." The compiler, by definition, is already capable of understanding our code. If that understanding can be exposed as a standard api, we can build up a set of powerful capabilities for refactoring and much deeper programmatic transformations. With very large code bases, this is no longer just nice-to-have ... it is the next tool we should rationally insist on.