The software company JetBrains has released its IntelliJ IDEA and RubyMine development environments and the IntelliJ Scala plugin in version 2022.3. The company had already equipped its JavaScript IDE WebStorm with the last major version of the year. As in WebStorm, users of the Java IDE IntelliJ IDEA and the Ruby IDE RubyMine can optionally try out a revised user interface.
Modernized user interface
The new user interface, previously available as part of a closed preview program, has transitioned to a beta feature. It can be activated in the settings of the development environment using Settings | Appearance & Behavior | New UI (Beta) activate:
Enabling the new UI in RubyMine 2022.3
(Image: JetBrains)
One of the reasons behind the new user interface is that, according to users, the previous UI was heavy and old-fashioned. JetBrains therefore decided on a major overhaul to reduce visual complexity and make key features more accessible. Among other things, the new UI contains a simplified toolbar, new light and dark themes and an updated icon set.
Connection to WSL 2, Redis and Docker
IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate users have a new way of dealing with Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2): Projects running in WSL 2 file systems no longer require running a full development environment under Windows. Instead, the backend of the development environment can start directly in WSL 2. Connecting to it is the same as connecting to a remote machine when using remote development in IntelliJ IDEA. Also reserved for Ultimate users is newly included support for the Redis in-memory database.
In addition, connections to Docker running in WSL can be used in the current IntelliJ IDEA version. As an additional feature for Docker, the IDE now offers full support for .dockerignore files including code completion and highlighting. IntelliJ IDEA 2022.3 can be installed on Windows and Linux devices with ARM64 processors for the first time, but it is still a beta feature.
A JetBrains blog entry informs in detail about the new release.
What’s new in RubyMine and the IntelliJ Scala plugin
The Scala plugin for IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio remains focused on use with Scala 3. For example, version 2022.3 is said to be better at handling match types and type variables. It introduces type inference for type variables and these are now correctly parsed for pattern matching purposes.
RubyMine 2022.3 introduces more features besides the new user interface. This includes simplified adding and editing of method signatures for Ruby method definitions. You can now write a single-action method definition without having to switch between Ruby and RBS files. RBS is a language for describing the structure of Ruby programs. About what’s new in RubyMine 2022.3 the JetBrains blog also informs.
(May)