A couple years back, I remember thinking about IDEs as an SaaS. It definitely seemed ridiculous at the time, especially given that online spreadsheets were merely ideas in the works. (NOTE: I'm not saying it's a good idea even today). Also, the thought of having a Visual Studio clone within your browser was a bit much. <insert reference here to classic rule of thumb for creating a desktop driven app vs a client/server app - sorry, I came across an article, amongst a few, way back but I cannot find it now. If anyone knows what I'm referring to, please provide the link.>
Now in 2007, with a few online IDEs on the market, I decided to blog about a couple. I alluded to Yahoo Pipes and their designer in an earlier entry at: http://geekswithblogs.net/yowhann/archive/2007/02/13/106252.aspx. Also, just to add a disclaimer, this analysis excludes websites such as Try Ruby or Run BASIC which provides a quick install free environment and is aimed at getting people to try the language.
There is SednaSpace, an online IDE offered as SaaS. The online IDE was actually built in ASP.NET and the IDE is specialized to produce web apps. And surprise, surprise...the web apps that are generated are in ASP.NET =). While this is a visual programming service, there is an option to download the generated source. After examining the generated code, you quickly realize that it was not structured in a manner that can be easily maintained by developers. But then again, generated code is usually less than ideal. So most of the value in this service comes from the codeless programming aspect.
The SednaSpace designer is very much like the visual designer in VS. Unfortunately, because their aim is to completely abstract code away from the user and keep it primarily visual programming driven, there were some usability issues. Being in a less mature niches, online IDE and visual programming, does not help. And while they do have sparse online documentation at their site, their built-in help within the IDE is non-existent and under construction. (See Below). I imagine there is potential for a following once the service matures and they provide users with adequate quickstart guides and documentation.
The forms are based off of adding eventlisteners and actions to hook up to, much like ASP.NET. Logical expressions can be built using an expression builder that pops up in a separate window. Shown below is a simple graph, button and textbox with a validator (the expression being a value being <= 10).
Then there is CodeIDE (http://www.codeide.com/), which is actually an IDE for multiple languages (Perl, LISP, JavaScript, BASIC, etc). This one is more lightweight than SednaSpace but is limited in IDE features. Shown below is a simple program and its output on the right.
(NOTE: resizing your window while in CodeIDE is not preferred).
Last but not least, there is The Flex Online Compiler, which I have yet to dig into.
I am not going to rank these online IDEs; the purpose of this entry is moreso to bring awareness to a few online IDEs. While it may be possible to monetize this, I am not sure what kind of following it would have. Currently, CodeIDE and SednaSpace are free and I did some some ads within the IDE. So perhaps they intend on monetizing this in a similar fashion as other SaaS.
If the intent is to make this a paid service, it will be a long road ahead in convincing development shops let alone the enterprise of adopting this. While building even something trivial in SednaSpace, there were latency issues. Nevertheless, kudos to these guys for getting this out there. It is not something I would use right now, but it is something that seems like it was loads of fun to build as an SaaS.