Using Wikis as Software Development Environments

Joining existing software development teams usually comes with a difficult and time-consuming setup of the technical development environment. Before new software developers can contribute their first line of code to the project, they must install the complete technical development environment on their computers. To support software developers becoming productive as fast as possible, we apply the wiki concept to software development projects. This paper introduces the concept of a Wiki Development Environment (WikiDE): A wiki system with which software developers can edit, compile, and debug applications using a standard web browser. We analyze the technological requirements for the realization of a WikiDE as well as the conceptual differences between a WikiDE and other wikis.