Mozilla Skywriter

Mozilla Skywriter

Developer(s)	Mozilla Labs
Preview release	0.9a1
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Type	code editor
License	MPL[1]
Website	mozillalabs.com/skywriter

Mozilla Skywriter (formerly Bespin^[2]) was a Mozilla Labs project aiming to create an open, extensible, and interoperable web-based framework for code editing.

As of January 2011, it has been merged into Ajax.org's Ace and Cloud9 IDE projects^[3].

Name

The original name was thought to be a reference to Bespin, the fictional gas giant from Star Wars,^[4] which relates to the cloud computing nature of the project.

In a time preceding the 1.0 release the name of the project was changed to Skywriter due to "many compliments and complaints" over the previous one. This new name also holds a reference to coding in a cloud environment.^[2]

Features

Skywriter encourages a more shared environment where data can be accessed from any machine.^[5] This allows developers to collaborate on projects through a unified interface accessed through a web browser, no matter where they are physically located.^[6] The application is available to anyone after free registration on the website.^[7]

Skywriter currently supports syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, PHP, Python, C#, C, Ruby, JavaScript and Wiring (used by the Arduino platform).^[8]

External links

• Official website
• Skywriter source-code repository (official)
• Bespin and the Open Web on YouTube by Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith at Google I/O 2009
• Bespin source-code repository (old)
• Change log
• [1]

References

1. ^ Dean, Sam (2009-02-13). "Mozilla's Bespin Delivers Open, Collaborative Cloud App Development". Ostatic. http://ostatic.com/blog/mozillas-bespin-delivers-open-collaborative-cloud-app-development. Retrieved 2009-02-14. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Dangoor, Kevin (2010-09-02). "Bespin is now Mozilla Skywriter, moves to GitHub". Mozilla Labs. http://mozillalabs.com/skywriter/2010/09/02/bespin-is-now-mozilla-skywriter-moves-to-github/. Retrieved 2010-09-03. 
3. ^ Dangoor, Kevin (2011-01-18). "Mozilla Skywriter has been merged into Ace". Mozilla Labs. http://mozillalabs.com/skywriter/2011/01/18/mozilla-skywriter-has-been-merged-into-ace/. Retrieved 2011-02-15. 
4. ^ Broersma, Matthew (2009-02-17). "Mozilla shifts code development to the cloud". ZDNet UK. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62051132,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
5. ^ Shanklin, Stephen (2009-02-13). "Mozilla Bespin tries taking coding to the cloud". Cnet news. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10163516-2.html. Retrieved 2009-02-14. 
6. ^ Pash, Adam (2009-02-13). "Mozilla Bespin Is a Killer Web-Based Text Editor". LifeHacker. http://lifehacker.com/5152999/mozilla-bespin-is-a-killer-web+based-text-editor. Retrieved 2009-02-14. 
7. ^ "Mozilla Bespin". https://bespin.mozilla.com/. Retrieved 2009-02-14. 
8. ^ "Bespin Syntax Files". Mozilla Labs. http://hg.mozilla.org/labs/bespin/file/d498b93b0d28/frontend/js/bespin/syntax/simple. Retrieved 2010-01-16.