Gitpod could well be of interest to more than one developer! If you dream of a tool that will make your working day simpler, you should give it a try. In this article we present a few of the advantages Gitpod brings — there are others, of course.
What is Gitpod?
You will already have noticed more and more Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) turning to the cloud over recent years. The number of developers coding locally on a computer using traditional text editors is in fact starting to decline little by little. Developers today are looking for simplicity, speed and, above all, efficiency! The cloud provides them with the answer to those needs while also making teamwork easier.
Gitpod is a tool that brings together several of the features developers are looking for. It is a cloud IDE that aims to be both simple to use and complete. The goal is to help developers by simplifying their daily work and allowing them to save time.
How do you use the IDE?
Gitpod can be used in two different ways. First, developers can take the URL of their GitLab project, for example, and add https://gitpod.io# in front of it. The final URL should therefore look something like this: https://gitpod.io#gitlab.monexemple.com. Second, developers can install a browser extension that lets them open their project directly in Gitpod.
The advantage of Gitpod is that it can be used with all Git hosting platforms, whether GitLab, GitHub or Bitbucket. The IDE is also compatible with widely used open-source tools such as VS Code and Docker. Every developer can therefore easily feel at home in Gitpod.
What are the advantages of Gitpod?
Gitpod is a cloud IDE unlike any other. It has the distinctive ability to understand the context in which developers are using it. That means the IDE knows which development environment to open depending on the actions the developer performs. If they type the git pull command, it means they want to retrieve the project’s files in order to work on them, so Gitpod opens the appropriate development environment.
Gitpod aims to be a simple, efficient IDE: thanks to it, no working environment is created if you do not need one. What’s more, as soon as you have finished with a workspace it is automatically deleted, so all you have to worry about is your work and nothing else.
The simplicity of the IDE
The development environment
Gitpod is based on the Eclipse Theia integrated development environment, a code editor similar to VS Code but more extensible.
Gitpod also offers prebuilds, which enable automatic, continuous development. The development environment is saved as a Docker image so that all developers can quickly obtain the same configuration and the same infrastructure.
Running the IDE
Because the integrated development environment is online, all it needs in order to run is a browser. The whole project is hosted in the cloud rather than on a local computer. On top of that, developers no longer need to install software or have very powerful machines in order to work. They can now code from anywhere, at any time, from a tablet just as well as from a computer.
A time-saver
Ultimately, Gitpod saves time throughout a developer’s work. Whereas on a basic project you first have to clone the project or fetch its latest version and install everything needed for it to run properly before you can even start working, Gitpod automates all of these steps. Thanks to the IDE, everything is faster: in a single click the project opens in the browser ready to be used, and Gitpod takes care of the rest.
Gitpod is part of a new generation of cloud IDEs. From their browser, developers work in the same way as on a local computer. They can edit code, open pull requests, create new branches, carry out code reviews and add comments. The IDE includes many additional features to help developers by automating certain processes, managing workspaces and encouraging teamwork.
For more articles, feel free to visit the Numendo blog.
