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Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

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Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#11

Post by jclardy »

bunderbunder wrote: post #10
rwc wrote: post #2

This direction gives me huge hope we'll soon see mouse support for iPad. It's the greatest handicap to doing productive work, particularly text editing.

Is full-on mouse support required, or do you really just need an easier way to reposition the cursor and making selections? If it's the latter, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Apple come up with something that only solves the latter.

I think the biggest problem comes from supporting external displays. For me to fully swap to iOS as a development platform (ignoring missing software currently) I would need to be able to plug into a larger display at some point, and have a way of controlling apps on that display without using touch at all.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#12

Post by reacharavindh »

haolez wrote: post #4
rwc wrote: post #2

This direction gives me huge hope we'll soon see mouse support for iPad. It's the greatest handicap to doing productive work, particularly text editing.

If this happens, I might try using only an iPad as my development machine. All I need are some cloud machines with Docker, SSH and maybe Cloud9/Che in some cases (and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, of course).

I'd totally rely on my Desktop for any serious work, and use such a mythical iPad as the mobile machine I can use to SSH into servers, VNC into desktop, run simple editors, email etc.

But, I don't think we're going to see that...

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#13

Post by rwc »

bunderbunder wrote: post #10
rwc wrote: post #2

This direction gives me huge hope we'll soon see mouse support for iPad. It's the greatest handicap to doing productive work, particularly text editing.

Is full-on mouse support required, or do you really just need an easier way to reposition the cursor and making selections? If it's the latter, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Apple come up with something that only solves the latter.

I have no problem with a mouse solution that's only active in textareas. But, as others note, if the external display is a real option then a mouse becomes necessary. Personally, I still doubt the iPad will drive external displays.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#14

Post by ksec »

rwc wrote: post #7
jmisavage wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we're very close. You can already tap and hold on the spacebar in iOS 12 and it turns into a trackpad like control for moving the cursor in textfields.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Somehow on iOS 12 my iPhone 6s only works on Spacebar, not anywhere on the Keyboard.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#16

Post by toasterlovin »

jclardy wrote: post #5
rwc wrote: post #2

This direction gives me huge hope we'll soon see mouse support for iPad. It's the greatest handicap to doing productive work, particularly text editing.

This plus the rumor of USB-C replacing lightning on the iPad - there is supposedly much more external display support in the next iOS beta. External screens as an extension don't really work without some kind of cursor - iOS already supports mirroring the display so this is likely something new.

FWIW, I think the external display support in iOS 12 may be related to the fact that switching to USB-C means that Apple's display adapter no longer works. That display adapter was essentially a tiny computer, so I would imagine there was a lot of logic they could shunt off onto that adapter and not have to implement in iOS, especially since it seemed like they were very resource constrained in terms of iOS engineering for a long time. Now that USB-C obsoletes that display adapter and also natively supports video, they may just be in a position where it makes more sense to do all the work in iOS rather than develop another hardware adapter.

Of course, the optimistic side of me takes this plus Marzipan and comes to the conclusion that they are putting all the pieces in place for iOS to fully support laptop and desktop form factors and work flows.

Fingers crossed.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#17

Post by bunderbunder »

jclardy wrote: post #11
bunderbunder wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is full-on mouse support required, or do you really just need an easier way to reposition the cursor and making selections? If it's the latter, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Apple come up with something that only solves the latter.

I think the biggest problem comes from supporting external displays. For me to fully swap to iOS as a development platform (ignoring missing software currently) I would need to be able to plug into a larger display at some point, and have a way of controlling apps on that display without using touch at all.

Once you get to that point, though, it seems like what you're really looking for is a computer and not a mobile device.

Perhaps what's missing is not an iPad with mouse support, but a Mac with a more Surface-like form factor.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#19

Post by codetrotter »

rwc wrote: post #7
jmisavage wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we're very close. You can already tap and hold on the spacebar in iOS 12 and it turns into a trackpad like control for moving the cursor in textfields.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

I never knew about this feature. This is great, thank you both! Now I just need to get used to using this feature. I jumped a bit back and forth while writing this comment and found myself reflexively using the old way, but with a little bit of time and deliberation I am sure that I will soon be using either the spacebar or force touch without having to think about it :)

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#20

Post by drb91 »

rwc wrote: post #7
jmisavage wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we're very close. You can already tap and hold on the spacebar in iOS 12 and it turns into a trackpad like control for moving the cursor in textfields.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Wow there IS a use for force touch!
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