A new coding platform called Codio aims to bring about major changes to the web and software development community, offering a complete solution for writing and executing code within a simple browser. Codio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and differs from other web-based development platforms in that it designates a virtual server for each individual coding project instead of relying on the local machine.

Codio is primarily designed for coding with HTML, CSS (News – Alert) and JavaScript, and includes developer tools to enhance that process including Sass, SCSS, Less & CoffeeScript. Each project’s server is referred to as a Box, an instantly available server-side development environment with full terminal access. It is an Ubuntu (News – Alert) instance that is preinstalled with features such as NodeJS, Ruby, Python, Git, Mercurial and SVN. One of the main benefits of this system is that developers can work on their projects from any machine, freeing them from the confines of a single local setup.

A feature called Box (News – Alert) Parts allows for the addition of more components, a list that is updated regularly by the staff with newer versions of products as well as additional languages. For example, users can add stacks including C, PHP, Go, Haskell, Java, Lua, Pascal, Rust and Scala, and database systems including MongoDB, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, Postgresql, SQLite3, Redis and Memcached. The web servers and queues available are Apache2, Nginx and RabbitMQ.

Box Parts can be added almost instantly with a simple command, as all operations of that type take place in the cloud independently of the user’s machine. For example, the command 'parts install php5 mysql apache2' installs a complete LAMP stack in only 20 seconds. Even though the process is so simple, it is not always even necessary thanks to Codio’s meaty collaboration functionality: a project owner can grant access to others and allow them to access, edit, and execute the code without needing to install a stack on their local machine. In addition, stacks are clonable so once a developer has set up his or her ideal configuration they can simply duplicate it for each new project, or share the setup with another user.

Codio has reached its long-awaited launch after a beta testing period and is free to use as long as the developer doesn’t mind sharing their work with the public, or for a monthly fee of $8 it can be kept private. The platform was met with a very positive response from a customer base thrilled to have an inexpensive development solution that does not rely on the technological capabilities of a particular machine, already attracting over 40,000 developers as of this weekend.