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Overview of the Latest Enhancements in IntelliJ Platform

IDE enhancements

The JetBrains team has spent the past period carefully studying methods that help developers to spend less hours in front of the monitor, thus improving the clarity of vision and thoughts. Most JetBrains IDEs are built on top of the IntelliJ Platform, which is continuously being enhanced. Therefore when IntelliJ Platform introduces a new feature, each IDE “inherits” it.

This blog presents an overview of the latest enhancements originating from the IntelliJ Platform.

New UI

IDEs based on IntelliJ get a new user interface that allows easy access to essential features while gradually revealing complex functionality.

Along with this, the key changes are:

  • Simplified main toolbar with new VCS, Project, and Run widgets.
  • New tool windows layout.
  • New Light and Dark color themes.
  • Updated icon set.

To switch to the Beta version of the new UI, go to Settings/Preferences | Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | New UI.

Settings synchronization

Now you can sync your settings everywhere in all the JetBrains IDEs you use: CLion, IntelliJ IDEA, and GoLand. Your settings are saved in Cloud associated with your JetBrains Account so that you can reuse them conveniently.

Preview for intention actions

In the past, when the IDE suggested intention actions (quick ways to make simple changes to your code), you had to apply them first before you could see what the resulting code looked like. The IntelliJ Platform recently added the ability to view suggested changes in a dedicated window before applying them.

VCS

IntelliJ Platform has added improvements such as annotations with Git Blame, cloning repository progress bar on the welcome screen. Now Git File History works in the new UI without an index. Also, IntelliJ-based IDEs provide you with Code Vision hints about code authorship based on the VCS history.

Docker and Kubernetes

These two technologies have permeated every developer’s life, so JetBrains is ensuring that IDEs provide the best developer experience possible for working with Docker and Kubernetes.

Docker UI is enhanced with the redesigned container, image, network and enhanced volume actions, (which was made with the support of Docker in WSL), Colima runtime, and Rancher container management (which allows you to configure more options for Docker daemon connections). New Docker Compose targets can be created and configured to run and debug applications in containers managed by Docker Compose.

The Kubernetes plugin can now integrate with the Telepresence tool. Resources loaded from the cluster can now be modified from the editor tab, and the editor supports werf.yaml and related Helm template files.

Remote development

JetBrains provides remote development capabilities for today’s modern world. How have the latest releases improved the experience of engineers using the remote development toolset?

  • New widget showing CPU load, memory, disk capacity, and other parameters.
  • There is a new SSH key forwarding security that allows authenticating access to Git repositories from a remote machine without storing private keys on a remote server.
  • For remote development, debugging functionality and multiple actions for code examination are improved, and remote JetBrains clients now can let you edit more file types on a par with text-based files.
  • Remote development integrations are now additionally available for Google Cloud and Amazon CodeCatalyst.

Hidden improvements

Hidden improvements impact the everyday experience of using JetBrains tools. IDE launch speed and indexing are faster, the Search Everywhere feature is even more precise, and the Files tab results in shorter search sessions are now ranked using machine learning.

Adopting the Vector API, which is designed to express vector computations that compile at runtime to vector instructions on supported CPU architectures, has allowed us to achieve performance superior to equivalent scalar computations.

Related products

Software development is much more than just writing code in your IDE and building your apps. Through JetBrains EduTools you can master new knowledge. JetBrains recently announced a new vision for JetBrains Academy, so you can now learn Java, Kotlin, Scala, Python, Go, and other programming languages, improve your existing skills right in your IDE, or create your own educational courses and publish them on JetBrains Marketplace.

They’ve also made sure your team can work together smoothly. Space is an all-in-one solution for software teams that brings all the collaboration tools together into one place, including project management, issue tracking, Git hosting, code reviews, continuous integration, package repositories, remote backend orchestration, and even chats.

Blog resource: https://blog.jetbrains.com/rust/2023/02/13/intellij-platform-latest-milestones-and-achievements/

 

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