Eclipse Theia 1.0 Released, an open-source IDE implemented in TypeScript

March 31, the Eclipse Foundation announced the release of “Eclipse Theia 1.0”, an open-source integrated development environment (IDE) platform.  It is a development platform implemented in TypeScript, and it can run both on desktops and in web browsers.

It used to be that first-generation IDEs were faced with the difficulty of keeping up with the latest programming languages and platforms.  However, Eclise Theia solved the problem by adopting protocol-based IDE extension model, created by Microsoft VS Code team.  It works by running all extensions in a light-weight soundbox process, and Theia natively supports this VS Code extension protocol.  This makes it possible to install and use over 160,000 extensions developed by the open-source community.

There was another obstacle that Microsoft prohibits non-Visual-Station products to install binaries and the likes from their marketplace, but Eclipse Theia worked around it by developing Open VSX, which is an open-source implementation of VS Code extension registry.  (It is currently in beta.)  The development team aims to create a public registry for open-source VSCode extensions, making it available to everyone.  They are planning to create private registry feature, which is a highly demanded feature,

Unlike VS Code, Theia is a vender-neutral open-source project, and it is designed from the ground to run both on desktops and in the cloud.

Theia is already used by Arduino “Pro IDE”, RedHat, SAP, Google (Alphabet), and others.  Eclipse Che also has switched from GWT-based IDE to Theia.

Theia 1.0 is available on the project website.

Eclipse Theia
https://theia-ide.org/sa