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Back in 2009, the folks over at Mozilla hatched a plan to create a cloud based code editor that would also allow users to collaborate with one another. They dubbed this project as "Bespin," deriving the name from the cloud city in The Empire Strikes Back. Now, after over a year, the project is slowly but steadily approaching the 1.0 release and Mozilla has changed the name to Skywriter. Recently they also moved the repository to GitHub, a social code repository, so that developers can more easily work on the project and collaborate with each other.
Skywriter is, according to Mozilla, "a powerful, customizable HTML5 text editor." The server version will run via Javascript, and the desktop version will be an XULRunner-based port, but all using the same key parts of the project, namely node.js.
For over a year, Mozilla has worked to offer code editing on their servers, but also give you the same functionality on your own website, via Skywriter Embedded. Bespin, or Skywriter, is also being used by Mozilla to create a new Add-on builder, The Register reports. The functionality and ability to customize the editor will allow for universal use and placement.
While this project has not received much press, the developers are hard at work in Mozilla labs creating what they feel to be a great coding solution. For yourself, you can find the repository right here, or find out more at the Skywriter homepage.
