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Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

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31–40 of 58 posts

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#31
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow there IS a use for force touch!

Force Touch is very useful; the only issue with it is that it’s not discoverable.

Neither was right clicking in Windows 95, but that didn't stop us from finding places where it was useful and adopting it.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#32
post #14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had no idea this existed! This is quite awsome, although I mostly use my iPad with a BT keyboard.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#33
post #30
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.

Apple has been rapidly improving the power of its processors in iOS devices. At the same time, it has been promoting privacy. Now it’s giving developers an incentive to develop apps for iOS that are friendly to desktop users. And Apple hasn’t been giving Macbooks much attention lately. This tells me Apple plans an iOS desktop mode. You could pair a monitor, keyboard, and mouse with your phone and work at a desk. All…

Apple would rather you buy a mac at home, a mac in the office, and an ipad for the commute--all tied together and locked in the apple garden with an icloud subscription--than let you get away with all this use out of just one device.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#34
post #20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

There was a great jailbreak thing that predated this (and force touch) where you accessed the caret-placement mode by swiping across the keyboard. It was really great, and it never failed, which happens a lot for me with Apple's force touch implementation - I end up pressing harder and harder with no effect, until I have to give up and accept some random character getting inserted, then delete and try again. I think I had that jailbreak mod on an iPhone 4s.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#35
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I’m a developer on Jump Desktop - a Remote Desktop app for iOS which supports 2 specific models of external mice. Along with that it also supports external monitor support with full resolution (not mirroring). Take a look here: https://jumpdesktop.com. If you’re interested in a free copy shoot me an email: support@jumpdesktop.com .

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#36
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.

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.

WTF. I had no idea. That is insanely helpful. Thank you for making my daily life better.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#37
post #7

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.

[deleted]

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Force Touch is very useful; the only issue with it is that it’s not discoverable.

Neither was right clicking in Windows 95, but that didn't stop us from finding places where it was useful and adopting it.

A mouse (unless Apple made it) has visible buttons. A touch screen has no indications that it can be force touched.

You only discover force touch if you mistakenly use too much force at the right time and place, which isn't an everyday occurrence. Where as a right click function could be discovered by clicking randomly with the right button which was obviously put there with purpose.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither was right clicking in Windows 95, but that didn't stop us from finding places where it was useful and adopting it.

A mouse (unless Apple made it) has visible buttons. A touch screen has no indications that it can be force touched. You only discover force touch if you mistakenly use too much force at the right time and place, which isn't an everyday occurrence. Where as a right click function could be discovered by clicking randomly with the right button which was obviously put there with purpose.

I really doubt the discovery of force touch itself is an issue.. it was in all their ads and they made a big deal out of it; when force touch can be applied, and for what purpose, is the bigger issue. The same problem apple has with option key. Right click is somewhat sensible: it works mostly everywhere, and gives you a “little menu” that you can equivalently find from the apps main menu. and it returns some result, always.

But option and force touch.. its unclear when its applicable, what it’ll get you, if it even went through and for option, where the resulting button even is

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#40
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.

Unfortunately, Maripan is about porting iOS apps to the Mac, not the other way around. Apple's work on Marzipan isn't really an indication they're planning to do the inverse and bring Mac apps to iOS or do anything at all re: mouse. (Though maybe better mouse support will get back-ported into UIKit for iOS as a result of them having to do it for macOS? We can cross our fingers!)
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