JetBrains has updated the distributed development environment Fleet to version 1.15. The innovations include the integration of Tailwind CSS, extensions to the Git connection and the quick evaluation function to calculate expressions when debugging in the editor. Despite the seemingly stable version number, the IDE still has preview status.
Fleet combines a lean front end that can be used as a simple source code editor, but is primarily designed for integration with a back end that works either on your own workstation or remotely in the data center or in the cloud.
From HTML and CSS to Git integration
Version 1.15 brings numerous smaller innovations in different corners. The Language Server for Tailwind CSS is now included. In addition, Fleet now offers syntax highlighting for HTML in PHP files. For the JavaScript syntax extension JSX, Fleet now automatically inserts the corresponding closing brackets and quotation marks into opening brackets.
In the current release, the editor offers syntax highlighting for HTML passages in PHP files.
(Image: JetBrains)
In conjunction with Git, Fleet can now group the changed files by directory instead of listing them all alphabetically. In addition, the Git context menu now also offers Revert next to the File History.
Debugging, to-do comments, rust and fonts
The function is also new Quick Evaluate Expression, which also brings JetBrain’s flagship IDE IntelliJ. This allows expressions to be calculated directly in the editor when debugging. The editor also now highlights comments that are marked as ToDo (regardless of upper/lower case) are also highlighted in color.
Fleet evaluates expressions during debugging at the push of a button.
(Image: JetBrains)
Other innovations in version 1.15 include automatic formatting when saving files, additions to the Rust connection and more flexible integration of fonts, among other things via fontWeight and new fonts.
Between text editor and cloud IDE
JetBrains first announced Fleet in November 2021 and started the public preview almost a year later. The Czech company has built Fleet from the ground up, emphasizing that the IDE is not intended to replicate the company’s other development environments such as IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, PyCharm or Rider.
Fleet relies on a distributed architecture in which the front end can either run independently as a lean IDE or be connected to an extended back end. The latter consists of the IntelliJ code engine and Language Servers, which use the Language Server Protocol (LSP) to offer specific functions for individual programming languages, such as auto-completion or syntax highlighting.
The backend can run on the local machine as well as on a remote machine, in a Docker container or in JetBrains Space platform for distributed work. The connection to virtual machines in the cloud is still marked as “Coming Soon”.
(Image: JettBrains)
Fleet is also designed for collaborative code editing. Teams can share both the editor and terminals or debug sessions. A session can be shared with others from one machine, or a shared remote development environment serves as a shared workspace.
more details on Fleet 1.15 can be found on the JetBrains blog. Die free preview version is available on the product page. There is no information about the later price, but the Fleet site is now listing a free version that is currently intended for non-commercial educational or open source projects and will have some restrictions. However, it has not yet been finally determined which criteria should apply and what the restrictions are.
(rme)