C-x 2
C-x 3
First split the screen horizontally, then split the current panel vertically.
Not the same thing, at all.
It's not nearly as slick as code bubbles, but it does work for many of the use cases suggested above.
Though, if we had a desktop that is infinitely expandable, then emacs, and any other windowed application for that matter, could be put to the same use. Really, bubbles is best as a general workflow paradigm, of which programming is a sub problem.