Software development tools/IDE have come a long way but are nothing compared to what they could be. Things like static analysis, syntax/context aware diff/merge, visualization of variable changes while debugging, visualizations in general, cross language understanding, instant compilation, reverse debugging, data store integration, remote debugging, hot reloading, dependency management, cross platform compatibility, documentation integration, design for async. List could go on forever.
It is somewhat "possible" to get a subset of the features above today but it always feels more like proof of concept rather than a complete product and you can never get all of them in one environment.
The problem is that there are so many free tools that are "good enough" so it becomes quite a luxury to pay for the last mile. Barrier to entry is very large because of this and because it is a very big and complex problem space. Would love to see some competition here, only serious actors today are intellij and VS.
It is somewhat "possible" to get a subset of the features above today but it always feels more like proof of concept rather than a complete product and you can never get all of them in one environment.
The problem is that there are so many free tools that are "good enough" so it becomes quite a luxury to pay for the last mile. Barrier to entry is very large because of this and because it is a very big and complex problem space. Would love to see some competition here, only serious actors today are intellij and VS.