DJI is blocked by Figma, see how the domestic IDE responds and breaks through?

On March 12, the UI design collaboration tool software Figma shut down DJI, and the uncertainty of Chinese companies using international software increased. Is disabling UI design tools just the beginning? Will the IDE (Integrated Development Environment), which is currently monopolized by international software and open source tools, become the next object to be blocked?

Just imagine, as an algorithm engineer, if you wake up one day and find that IDEs such as Jupyter, PyCharm, and VS Code that are necessary for work are unavailable, what should you do?

This article will discuss with you how domestic IDEs should deal with potential deactivation risks.

Technology has national boundaries, and it is time for domestic IDE to break through

On March 12, Figma, an American online design software company, suspended the accounts of companies such as DJI, which once again sounded the alarm for the breakthrough and rise of domestic software.

In a complex environment, not only commercial software, but also open source software is difficult to maintain "open pure land". As early as 2019, Github restricted developers in some areas. Developers in these areas not only could not use Github normally, but even the code in private repositories could not be accessed.

With the development of my country's digital economy and the advancement of digital-intelligence transformation, the use of AI technology for data analysis and mining has become an inevitable trend, and an IDE suitable for algorithm development is an indispensable basic tool to support this transformation trend.

At present, the IDEs used by Chinese data scientists and algorithm engineers are mainly Jupyter, PyCharm, and VS Code. Although they are open source software, they do not mean that they are autonomous and controllable. Just imagine, as an algorithm engineer, if you wake up one day and find that IDEs such as Jupyter and PyCharm that are necessary for work are not available, what should you do?

In the ever-changing technological environment, it is necessary to plan ahead and actively seek controllable alternative solutions. It is time to build the capability of domestic IDE products.

Why has there been no high-quality domestic IDE for a long time?

Since the launch of the world's first software integrated development environment - Maestro I - in the 1970s, IDE tools have gradually blossomed, and high-quality domestic IDEs are still blank in the market. "Why has there been no high-quality domestic IDE?" is a question that has been continuously raised but has never been seriously discussed. We believe that there are three main reasons, summarized as follows, and discuss with you technical geeks.

1. The technical implementation challenge is comparable to developing an operating system

Although IDE is application software, its development difficulty is no less than that of developing an operating system. The core value of IDEs is to allow developers to quickly start writing code for new applications, improving the development experience and efficiency. To achieve this value, IDEs centralize various functional components in the same workbench, including code editing, compilation and refactoring, debugging, version management, and more. This "integration" feature also means that the development of IDE is extremely difficult. It is not a simple software, but a complex system. It not only faces the development challenges of complex functional components such as compilers and debuggers, but also needs to deal with Integration Integration Complexity. The integrated development environment is not just the stacking of various functional components, but also its organization and scheduling.

2. Higher user experience requirements further raise the threshold for IDE development

IDE users are development engineers, who have extremely high requirements on product performance and experience, which further increases the difficulty of IDE development.

IDP has identified in product development that the IDE's "experiential" functions most valued by algorithm engineers and other developers mainly include:

• Quick access to data sources and convenient data exploration
• Code automation, including formatting automation such as automatic indentation and line wrapping, as well as smart code completion and automatic code generation
• View the definition of functions and constants at any time
• source level debugging

The existence of these functions is not enough, and it is even more difficult for IDE development to achieve a satisfactory level of performance and experience for users.

3. The difference in Chinese and foreign environments leads to weak domestic investment in basic software

my country's computer and Internet industries started relatively late, and foreign companies have achieved a monopoly in the field of basic software. In the case of losing first-mover opportunities and advantages, domestic enterprises are more likely to focus on consumer-oriented applications based on international basic software systems in their choice of development paths. Public data shows that the domestic market share of domestic basic software is only 5%, and more open source software is used, and there is less pure self-research.

Over the past ten years of the development of the Internet industry, concepts such as "emphasis on hard and soft", "emphasis on application R&D and less on basic R&D", and "make quick money" have long existed in the domestic market. Even with policy encouragement, few companies are willing to invest in basic software areas that require long-term efforts but may not be profitable.

IDE tools even more so. The commercialization of IDE has faced double attacks for a long time. On the one hand, it is free open source software, and on the other hand, international leading manufacturers such as Jetbrains who have been deeply involved in IDE for many years. The development cycle is long, the investment is high, and the commercialization is difficult. As a result, both domestic capital and talents rarely flow into the IDE track.

However, in recent years, this situation has been reversed, domestic basic software has begun to be clearly sought after by capital, and the development soil of basic software such as IDE has gradually formed.

to build a high-quality IDE?

So, in the golden age of domestic IDE development, how should we create a high-quality IDE tool? Based on the experience in the development process of IDP, we believe that the key success factors for building a high-quality IDE are mainly the following four points.

attacked and developed self-developed core technology : Technology is the core moat of basic software. IDP insists on self-research, including WebOS-level interface, back-end Kernel operation, task scheduling and resource management are all self-developed, providing users with a reliable, stable and integrated experience.

design where experience is : A quality experience is the core of the product. The users of IDEs are "strict and critical" engineers. With a relatively rich selection of free and open source IDEs, only the ultimate product quality and experience can win the minds of users. IDP adheres to product development with an engineer's culture, fully considers the usage habits of data scientists and algorithm engineers in product design, adheres to the principle of "simple and simple", and creates an easy-to-use IDE with excellent quality and low usage threshold.

products are updated rapidly and continuously iteratively : The development of basic software should be based on a long-term rather than a flash-in-the-pan mentality. IDEs such as TextMate and Sublime are declining day by day, and the long version update cycle is the main reason. IDP hopes to create an evergreen IDE that can accompany Chinese data scientists and algorithm engineers to grow together. We will closely track changes in technology, market and user behavior, respond quickly, and continuously optimize to meet user needs.

Open source and ecological co-prosperity: Open source is crucial to the long-term development of the product. IDP will open source its IDE product modules in the future, actively listen to users' voices through the community, and accelerate product iteration and improvement. At the same time, IDP will cooperate with various plug-ins, tools and cloud platforms based on the principle of openness and co-prosperity to further facilitate the use of users.

Domestic basic software has ushered in a golden age of development. I hope that more companies and developers can join this wave, not only for the domestic replacement in form, but also for Chinese IDE and other basic software to compete in the world competition. occupy an important place.

Learn about IDPs:
https://baihai.co/