Jetbrains Integrated Development Environments
It is always good that the supply of software for Linux increases, wherever it comes from. That's why the news that Jetbrains IDEs are beginning to implement support for Wayland is good news.
Jetbrains has two versions of its integrated development environments. community and paid. The paid version was the first software for Linux to implement the subscription license system.
With the aim of improving the user experience both in Linux distributions and in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Jetbrains begins making its IntelliJ development environments Wayland compatible. They are used in the development of applications for the Java and Kotlin programming languages as well as for the creation of applications for mobile devices.
At the moment Java Swing and AWT applications can run. Software-based rendering is available for basic window decorations, HiDPI, and multi-monitor. For later we will have accelerated rendering based on Vulkan and support for input methods, clipboard and drag and drop.
Wayland is a graphical server protocol that seeks to replace the traditional X11 of Linux systems.However, it has some shortcomings.
- The application must indicate the location of each pixel on the screen in advance as Wayland does not provide any drawing primitives.
- It does not deal with the decoration of the windows.
- It does not offer any built-in ability to position the window on the screen at the desired coordinates, nor are there any ways to get the location information.
- Before doing something like changing the position of a window or moving the mouse pointer, the application must prove to Wayland that it is obeying the commands of a human being.
You're probably wondering at this point, like me, if there's a good thing to Wayland. From the Jetbrains blog he says that:
Wayland's architecture offers inherent benefits in terms of performance and security. By avoiding the complexities of the old X11 protocol, Wayland provides a more streamlined mechanism for communication between applications and the display server. This means faster rendering and a lower chance of security vulnerabilities stemming from X11's outdated design. As a result, IntelliJ-based IDEs running on Wayland are expected to show greater stability and responsiveness.
If you want to test how the support is evolving, you can find the Jetbrains IDE's in the Snap store.