A New Generation of Intelligent Development Environments

TL;DR

This paper envisions transforming traditional IDEs into Intelligent Development Environments that leverage AI agents and automation to enhance software development workflows and collaboration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel concept of an IDE centered on AI-assisted development and workflow organization, moving beyond traditional code editing.

Findings

Proof-of-concept scenarios demonstrate potential workflows.

Identifies key challenges for implementing intelligent IDEs.

Proposes a new interaction model between humans and AI tools.

Abstract

The practice of programming is undergoing a revolution with the introduction of AI assisted development (copilots) and the creation of new programming languages that are designed explicitly for tooling, analysis, and automation. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) as they are currently conceptualized have not yet responded to these changes. They are still designed around the idea of a human programmer typing textual code into an editor window with the IDE providing assistance via the integration of various tools for syntax highlighting, compilation, debugging, and (maybe) code version control. This paper presents a vision for transforming the IDE from an Integrated Development Environment to an Intelligent Development Environment. The new IDE will be designed around the idea of a human programmer as the manager or curator of a software project who, rather than manually typing in code to implement a solution, will instead use the IDE to direct AI programming agents and/or automated tools to combine existing APIs, packages, and new code to implement the needed features. In this new model, the fundamental roles of the IDE are to 1) facilitate the communication between the human programmer and the AI agents and automated tools and 2) organize the workflow tasks needed to go from requirements gathering to the final tested and validated deployed feature. This paper presents a vision for the new Intelligent Development Environment based on a range of proof-of-concept high-value scenarios we have experimented with and discusses the challenges that remain to realizing these in a cohesive intelligent development experience.