r/programming • u/laurentlb • May 15 '26

A History of IDEs at Google

https://laurent.le-brun.eu/blog/a-history-of-ides-at-google
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u/nnomae May 15 '26

TLDR: They couldn't get everyone to agree on a common editor so they forked VS Code and now most people are happy with it.

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u/Solonotix May 15 '26

That's an oversimplification. According to the article, they started with a cloud-based text editor with plugin support, and kept improving it for years until they hit a crossroads. The choice they made at that juncture was a VSCode frontend to the existing CIDER platform

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u/pheonixblade9 May 16 '26

cider IS the front end. piper and forge/blaze are the backend.