the WebUSB API is kind of a thing and is supported on a couple of browsers. So it could make sense for the browser-based IDE to include support for uploading directly…
Yep, this is an idea that lives in our heads since the announcement of WebUSB API. Unfortunately, it can’t give XOD Browser IDE the feature to upload programs to boards out of the box. The reason is security. WebUSB is designed in such a way that PC is allowed to communicate to a device only when the device “trusts” the service trying to interact. The resolution is based on URL’s. For example, an Arduino board could advertise that it trusts “*.arduino.cc” and any service hosted on arduino.cc (such as the official IDE) will have access.
But the device only tells the domains which were flashed as factory-defaults. There’s no chance currently that Arduino or another popular manufacturer would include a special bootloader which whitelists xod.io.
Maybe when WebUSB becomes a de-facto standard way to upload to Arduinos vendors will white-list serveral well-known services in the bootloader.
ah, I see. I was getting confused between WebUSB and WebBLE