Reports suggest that The Eclipse Foundation is readying itself for a summer launch of its Orion browser-based web application IDE. Still in its incubation stage, Orion's wider objective is to create a browser-based open tool integration platform entirely focused on developing for the Web, in the Web.

Tools are written in JavaScript and run in the browser. This will set the new release apart from the preexiting Eclipse desktop IDE with its predisposition for Java and C++. Unlike other attempts at creating browser-based development tools, this is not an IDE running in a single tab — links work and can be shared.

Eclipse vice president of marketing Ian Skerrett has explained that, as a development tool, Orion is particularly useful for cloud application development as the tool resides "where the apps are running". The Eclipse Foundation is said to be eying inclusion of Orion into commercial products. Mozilla is helping to set this trend by currently using the Orion editor inside of Firefox developer tools.

The Eclipse Foundation has used its annual developer symposium Eclipsecon to unveil major milestones in Orion, so more news is expected as of this week in conjunction with the event itself. Version 1.0 of Orion (based on the Eclipse 4 platform) may be available by June, based on currently available information.