3D IDE

Imagine a 3-dimensional integrated development environment. When you launch the IDE, instead of being presented with a flat screen of files to edit, you connect to a server that hosts a 3D representation of the application. Components could be represented by different shapes, and the size of a shape might indicate the amount of code in the module. Colors could indicate the state of the code, whether it's green for a clean piece of code or red for an unfinished piece.

Imagine you can zoom and pan around the application to find the module you wish to work on and double click it to open the traditional file editor. The 3D window would update the view to indicate you are currently working on a module.

Now imagine a team of coders all connected to the same server, coding on the same application simultaneously. Imagine as each coder finishes a piece of code the 3D visual of the application updates to reflect the new feature. Imagine you could watch the application grow in real time. Imagine you could zoom into a module that is being coded and watch the developer work in a kind of virtual pair programming environment where you could chat with the coder as they type their lines and suggest ideas or changes to make.

Imagine how that would change software development.