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The advantages of programming on a small netbook

ianso.blogspot.com

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Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#51

Post by billybob »

elblanco wrote: post #24

Reminds me of the old demoscene days. Tran ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pytel ) was a legend for a while, programming fast, lightweight, mind blowing effects that ran really well on slow hardware. When it was revealed that he did all of his coding on slow, last gen hardware (at the time a 386sx when everybody else was on 486dx2s) he ascended into virtual demoscene godhood. The point is that the constraints o…

Now this is an interesting point. One application might be to develop your web app on a slow computer and a tiny screen; net books and mobile phones will have no trouble if you don't.

Or you could just have a mobile phone sitting nearby, and keep hitting 'refresh' on it...

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#52

Post by krschultz »

jah wrote: post #41

Retort I had horrific problems with the keyboard on my 1st gen EEE PC, so make sure you get a chance to demo the netbook of your choice before blowing $400 bucks. The right shift key is terribly placed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ASUS_Eee_PC_900_0010.JPG ) - you reach for shift and you end up hitting the up arrow. Sure you can remap the keys, but this design decision is indicative of the overall quality of th…

Agreed, I bought a netbook and tried out four or five to feel their keyboards. I chose the Samsung N120 and I'm quite happy with it, but I don't enjoy coding on it nearly as much as on my desktop.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#53

Post by dhimes »

mace wrote: post #50

I just moved to a netbook for most of my hacking and am pleasantly surprise how well it works. I run Ubuntu with Xmonad. Xmonad works really in the small screen. I compensate for the slower Hard Disk and CPU by maxing out the RAM. A big win is being able to go almost one full day between charges.

I like the ubuntu netbook remix. I added the workspaces back and it works very well.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#54

Post by grandalf »

reginaldo wrote: post #20

I find it very simple to explain to my friends... If it runs nicely on my netbook, it will run pretty much anywhere. Also, there's another thing... While the keyboard is annoying at first, in the long run it makes typing faster, as the keys are closer to one another.

exactly! and it puts some useful constraints on UI design that result in better usability too, I think.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#55

Post by wvenable »

SlyShy wrote: post #11

I program and write exclusively on my Aspire these days. Keyboard: I have small fingers, and I actually type faster on the netbook keyboard. The key distances are smaller, so I'm moving my fingers les. Screen: I use a small font (Code Envy R at 10pt) and WMII, so I can fit a lot of code on the screen at once. I can also switch between windows extremely quickly, so it is relatively painless not to have all the code I'…

I'm also using an Aspire One for coding on my hobby project. I was pretty shocked at how well the device handles Visual Studio and other tasks. I haven't bothered tweaking the font size or anything, it just end up looking at a much smaller window of code at a time.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#56

Post by toni »

ianso wrote: post #45
dminor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed - I used my eeepc for some Eclipse Android development and it worked quite well.

Thanks for the info you guys, I didn't know this. At work I generally have 1-3 large workspaces open in the "Java Enterprise" version of Eclipse, hence my warped perspective, maybe...

Have you tried Yoxos Eclipse[1] flavor? You can build your own distribution from scratch and only include the packages you need. You can even save your choices and continue modifying them next time you login. I have a very pleasant experience using it and my builds are usually around 100-200 MB.

[1] http://ondemand.yoxos.com/geteclipse/start

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#58

Post by dhimes »

borism wrote: post #2

I agree with the premise, but article doesn't at all seem to substantiate it. coding on a train? coding in your head while shopping for groceries? how is that related to notebook at all? same can be done with any laptop. no?

It's a lot easier to throw the netbook than the laptop in a small bag. I was skeptical too until I did it. Now I do my main work on a laptop but keep my current projects in a mercurial repo on a usb stick. Whenever I'm on the go, I just fire up the netbook pull from the repo. It also servers as another backup which I do regularly whether on the go or not.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#59

Post by SeamusBrady »

jacquesm wrote: post #18

I very much don't practice what I used to preach, which is to use a slow machine and a small screen in order to write software, it makes you write better code. Fast machines make you lazy. These days the stuff I write does not run on the machine it is written on at all so that's no longer a factor.

I have always kept my own personal development machine a year or two behind what is considered bleeding edge as this is what my users will have.

Makes it easier to spot performance issues if you are not using a desktop water cooled super computer that boots so fast it causes nosebleeds and nausea.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#60

Post by nfnaaron »

ajuc wrote: post #21

I experienced exactly the same, when I started bringing pen and paper to bus driving to/from work and code on paper. It is very different experience from coding with computer, and it results in better quality code, because I can't just run to "ensure" it works, I have to think it throught. Also I tend to write less code, when each time I forget to add check before some line I have to rewrite whole function by hand. I…

Does anyone use something like Warnier/Orr diagrams for on-paper procedural code, or do you just code/pseudo-code in the target language?

http://varatek.com/warnierorr.html

http://varatek.com/warnierorr_diagrams.html

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