The major leap forward seems to be project lifecycle management, and collaboration suites. It doesn't seem like too long ago that we had a compiler, an editor, and some sticky notes.
In the Microsoft camp, my lowly Visual C++ has evolved into Visual Studio Team System/Team Foundation System/Orca/super maximized enterprise grid suite 2.0/whatever, which in turn is an editor on top of the compiler, a collaboration suite with groupware-features and a source versioning system (and maybe that's an undersell?)!
And Borland, oh-don't-get-me-started! Borland's whole business is now centered on everything that happens before and after the work in JBuilder has been done: it's all about the lifecycle of the project.
JetBrains has their TeamCity product, which - along with their TMate source control client - form a suite of collaboration tools above and beyond working in IntelliJ. Even IntelliJ now has the ability to "share" a coding session with someone.
And, now, I just read about the Eclipse Foundation's (and tech-lead Erich Gamma's) push into collab-suites with Eclipse Jazz (eh, here, and here). Of course, (the former) Rational has always been about this sort of thing in a lot of ways, so it's no surprise the influence eventually found its way to Eclipse. Interesting, I say!
Does this mean there's little more vendors can see doing for individual developers? IntelliJ IDEA) (mmm.. I love you) is good, but is it really the be-all-end-all of individual productivity? All without one patronizing Wizard? Really? Also, I'm a little unclear on how this new wave of software fits in with traditional tools.
Suppose I have a wiki and bug defect system (Trac)), a source control system (Subversion), an IDE (IntelliJ, emacs) and an email address/IM client, a project management tool (Microsoft Project?), and even a build system with a deficiency complex (Maven and Bamboo) what am I missing?
