You get all of the advantages of a webapp

Software maker Mozilla has launched a prototype of its new web-based XHTML code editor. It's called Bespin, and it's still in the demo stage, but the app is live and you can test it out right now.

The logo pretty much says it all -- it's a code editor that lives in the cloud. It definitely fills a need seeing how many web developers and programmers are working in co-ops or coffee shops, or collaborating with others from a home office.

You get all of the advantages of a webapp -- a synchronized work environment, real-time collaboration tools and access to your files from anywhere -- without the pains of other web-based writing tools. For example, the most popular web-based editors like Google Docs and Zoho Writer don't handle code well at all. They're mostly for writing regular old text docs. Bespin gives you coder must-haves like syntax highlighting and line numbering. The team plans to add emulation modes for vi and emacs (for the die hards out there).

I took Bespin for a spin, and my first impressions are positive. There are some simple web-based code editors already out there, like 9ne and Codepad, but Bepsin looks like it will be far more robust once it's fleshed out a little more.

Also, it's open-source, so you can download the code and run it on your own production server.

Of course, purely taken as a code editing tool, Bespin wouldn't be worth it's weight in cold salt if it wasn't at least as fast as BBEdit, the current king of all desktop code editors, or TextMate and Coda, the runners up. It's really fast, but it's not quite as fast as a desktop app yet.

However, Bespin's price point (free) certainly gives it an edge over commercial desktop options.