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Building iPad Pro features in Swift

swiftbysundell.com

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Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#21

Post by empath75 »

giobox wrote: post #7
arkw wrote: post #4

I can imagine that Apple is ready to release an OS for the iPad with the full functionality (file system, mouse & cursor) and would do so in the event of the more expensive and port-lacking new Air undersells. Wouldn't surprise me if they had it ready as a backup plan, especially seeing the success of tablet computing with the MS Surface.

> especially seeing the success of tablet computing with the MS Surface. MS Surface sales last quarter: 602,000. iPad sales last quarter: 9.6 million. Even the Mac shifted over 5 million machines, all the more impressive when one considers that for much of that quarter staple models such as the Air were long, long overdue a refresh. The Surface sales figure presumably includes models that aren’t even tablets - the “S…

I find it so weird that people continually talk about apple as if it’s producing one failure after another and they need to start copying less successful products, when it’s the largest company in the world and has more profits by far than any of their competitors in any market they’re in.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#22

Post by kccqzy »

djrogers wrote: post #20
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #11

I just don’t see how an iPad Pro could ever really work as a computer replacement for true professional workflows. I’m talking about multitasking between final cut, building a website, creating assets in photoshop, taking screenshots, downloading things from an email...these are daily tasks for me. An iPad would struggle to do one of these at a time let alone all of them at once. iOS is just too limited to ever make…

> An iPad would struggle to do one of these at a time let alone all of them at once. You haven’t touched a modern iPad, have you? Not only do they not ‘struggle’ to do one of those at a time, they’re butter smooth at it. The workflow/task juggling aspect is definitely an issue, but there is nothing preventing an A10x or A12x iPad from doing any of those things with all the performance you’d expect from a $3k+ MacBook…

GP is talking about how the design of iOS is preventing one from doing all those tasks in a satisfactory way, but not the hardware.

For example I could be editing a movie and waiting for it to export. Then I switch to a different app and start editing my photos. There is a Task Completion background API to allow the former to continue to run, but there is no guarantee nor any notification when iOS decides my new photo editing app is consuming too much resources and jettison or kill the movie app. It contributes to this nagging feeling of needing to switch back to the background app so that iOS would keep it alive.

It's just an app management model ill suited to professional work.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#23

Post by CharlesW »

IOT_Apprentice wrote: post #19
jbigelow76 wrote: post #2

Cool hardware, but there's no way I could justify the price to myself with the limited functionality of iOS as it stands today. A lot Apple tech writers/podcasters keep saying "just wait for iOS 13!", but the earliest a developer is going to see iOS 13 is 6 months from now at WWDC, the earliest the general public will get any additional functionality is 11 months from now. That's a LONG wait to see if any changes wil…

And another reason to wait a year at least to buy a new iPad Pro if you already have one. Wait till A13x or A14x to see an iOS that can utilize it properly.

> Wait till A13x or A14x to see an iOS that can utilize it properly.

What will these future processors do that's so earth-shattering that it can't be supported on today's iPad Pros, which will run new versions of iOS for many years?

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#24

Post by saagarjha »

kccqzy wrote: post #22
djrogers wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An iPad would struggle to do one of these at a time let alone all of them at once. You haven’t touched a modern iPad, have you? Not only do they not ‘struggle’ to do one of those at a time, they’re butter smooth at it. The workflow/task juggling aspect is definitely an issue, but there is nothing preventing an A10x or A12x iPad from doing any of those things with all the performance you’d expect from a $3k+ MacBook…

GP is talking about how the design of iOS is preventing one from doing all those tasks in a satisfactory way, but not the hardware. For example I could be editing a movie and waiting for it to export. Then I switch to a different app and start editing my photos. There is a Task Completion background API to allow the former to continue to run, but there is no guarantee nor any notification when iOS decides my new phot…

As a workaround, you can put the app into split screen and the OS will keep it alive because it is still in the foreground.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#25

Post by sxp62000 »

When it comes to programming, I just can't see myself typing thousands of lines of code on a tiny iPad screen, no matter how clever the gestures and multitasking in iOS gets.

Maybe one day the iPad Pro + stylus will do wonders for visual programming languages like VVVV (can't think of any others).

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#26

Post by saagarjha »

> To avoid having to re-create the same key commands multiple times, and to only do so when actually needed, we’ll use a lazy property to keep track of them internally as well

Honestly, I think this is a premature optimization. I don’t think it’s worth trying to prevent the allocation of a four element constant dictionary, especially one which requires awkward syntax (indirection through a computed value) to work because it must fulfill a protocol requirement.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#27

Post by saagarjha »

sxp62000 wrote: post #25

When it comes to programming, I just can't see myself typing thousands of lines of code on a tiny iPad screen, no matter how clever the gestures and multitasking in iOS gets. Maybe one day the iPad Pro + stylus will do wonders for visual programming languages like VVVV (can't think of any others).

> When it comes to programming, I just can't see myself typing thousands of lines of code on a tiny iPad screen

iPad Pro has a 13 inch screen; that’s the same size as my MacBook Pro’s display. With a good keyboard, such as the one Apple sells, I don’t see why it should be difficult to write code in an iPad.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#28

Post by saagarjha »

snazz wrote: post #12
criddell wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be surprised if Apple ever does more than the current two-window model. A multi-user feature would certainly be nice though. I think iOS is mostly fine. I don't think it's supposed to be a macOS replacement. There are some things a Mac is better for and other things an iPad is better for. Apple wants you to have both.

You can actually kind of fit three windows on an iPad: two in Split View and another one on top in Slide Over. Even if you can’t interact with the background windows when Slide Over is active, they continue to refresh their contents.

Fun fact: I believe you used to be able to interact with the split viewed apps in early betas of iOS, but then the feature was removed and restricted to only when you had one app open.

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#29

Post by nikki93 »

saagarjha wrote: post #27
sxp62000 wrote: post #25

When it comes to programming, I just can't see myself typing thousands of lines of code on a tiny iPad screen, no matter how clever the gestures and multitasking in iOS gets. Maybe one day the iPad Pro + stylus will do wonders for visual programming languages like VVVV (can't think of any others).

> When it comes to programming, I just can't see myself typing thousands of lines of code on a tiny iPad screen iPad Pro has a 13 inch screen; that’s the same size as my MacBook Pro’s display. With a good keyboard, such as the one Apple sells, I don’t see why it should be difficult to write code in an iPad.

This is an iPad programming system I was hacking on a bit ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQUq2INrdiU Also involved is me live-coding a fix for the system in itself (like you would in Smalltalk envs).

Re: Building iPad Pro features in Swift

#30

Post by arkw »

giobox wrote: post #7
arkw wrote: post #4

I can imagine that Apple is ready to release an OS for the iPad with the full functionality (file system, mouse & cursor) and would do so in the event of the more expensive and port-lacking new Air undersells. Wouldn't surprise me if they had it ready as a backup plan, especially seeing the success of tablet computing with the MS Surface.

> especially seeing the success of tablet computing with the MS Surface. MS Surface sales last quarter: 602,000. iPad sales last quarter: 9.6 million. Even the Mac shifted over 5 million machines, all the more impressive when one considers that for much of that quarter staple models such as the Air were long, long overdue a refresh. The Surface sales figure presumably includes models that aren’t even tablets - the “S…

Fair enough, the numbers speak for themselves. What strikes me as interesting though is that the Surface uncovered a lot of people (especially students on my campus) willing to use tablets as a primary device. I'd bet that a lot of people would shift from Macs to iPads if they had a more comprehensive OS.
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