JetBrains previews next-gen Fleet IDE

Fleet will coexist with JetBrains’ IntelliJ line and serve as a lightweight code editor with a different take on IDE organization.

JetBrains has begun an early preview of Fleet, which the company describes as a next-generation, universal IDE that reimagines the software development experience. Fleet is built to be simple, lightweight, and flexible, ready to use without additional configuration, the company said November 29.

JetBrains is well known for its IntelliJ Idea IDE for Java development, and plans to continue improving it. Fleet is intended both to offer another view on IDE organization and to serve as a lightweight code editor. Fleet could not be implemented within the current product line without breaking expectations of existing users, JetBrains noted.

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“We envisage that both the current IntelliJ-based product line and Fleet will co-exist for quite some time, leaving the options open for our customers,” Eugene Toporov, JetBrains vice president of marketing, said in a statement released by the company.

For simple tasks, Fleet is ready in a second, JetBrains said. With a single click, developers can launch its full-on environment with the IntelliJ code-processing engine, which adds project and context-aware code completion, navigation to definitions and usages, refactorings, quick fixes, and on-the-fly code checks.

Fleet is designed to provide dedicated functions out-of-the-box when needed, based on a particular project. Collaborative and remote development are enabled as well. Fleet currently supports the Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, and Rust programming languages, with an even wider range of language support planned for the future.

Fleet has been in development for several years, with the team at JetBrains experimenting with different architectures, technologies, and UX approaches. The IDE is designed to make all developers feel productive, regardless of where they code, what programming languages they use, or what development workflows are being followed.

Developers interested in trying out Fleet can file a preview request with JetBrains.