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Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

andrewbrookins.com

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Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#51

Post by zozbot123 »

akerl_ wrote: post #15
0xADEADBEE wrote: post #12

I'm struggling to work out why anyone would want to do this. Leaving aside the other concerns, I personally find input via touchscreen pretty painful and can't imagine being able to program at any real speed. It's entirely possible I'm missing something though!

I'd say coding using just a touchscreen would be terrible, but keep in mind that tablets aren't limited to just the touchscreen. In fact, you can plug a full-sized mechanical keyboard into an iPad (though the more common keyboard is likely the smartcover.

> I'd say coding using just a touchscreen would be terrible

Text-based coding, sure. But the jury is still out for visual programming systems, of either the Scratch (syntax expressed via custom "puzzle pieces") or the LabVIEW (flow-based semantics) kind.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#52

Post by ddoolin »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #36
reustle wrote: post #18

The iPad Pro will become a viable "pro" device when they finally stop artificially holding it back by not allowing a full version of Safari. Edit: and of course mouse/trackpad support

What’s missing?

Developer tooling on-device, for one.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#53

Post by k__ »

superfrank wrote: post #24
cabaalis wrote: post #7

How is the experience with web IDEs like cloud9 or repl.it?

I tried using a chromebook to develop about 12-18 months ago and tried both cloud9 and repl.it. I found cloud9 a bit annoying to use. It basically spins up an EC2 instance for you that you are then connecting to, so you have pretty much a full file system which was cool, but it felt like they were really pushing Lambda as the way to go. Trying to run a bunch of dockerized microservices on a single instance (which is…

You get an EC2 with the size of your choosing that runs an Amazon Linux 2 with pre-installed AWS credentials.

Isn't this the same infrastructure your microservice will run on in the end?

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#54

Post by cageface »

wlesieutre wrote: post #47
cageface wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like in this case you're not really coding "on" an iPad and it's really just more of a dumb terminal. Wouldn't any device with a browser be just as good in this case?

It’s a very lightweight device with an excellent screen, impressive battery life, and the option for built-in LTE. But yeah, in terms of functional capability to connect to a server and type stuff, other devices would work as well. Also an excellent tablet when you’re doing non-coding stuff.

Yeah I get the upsides but if the debate is really around whether or not an iOS device can be used for real work I'm not sure this really makes the case. It's also massive overkill to use such a powerful device as a web terminal.

I guess another way to state what I'm saying is that when the iPad first launched there was a lot of speculation about what new kinds of productivity apps would be enabled by a big, fast touchscreen device like this. So far the answer seems to be "not many".

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#55

Post by ddoolin »

cageface wrote: post #43
delinka wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hammers, nails, and screws a pretty much set. They're not changing regularly. An iPad becoming a laptop-replacement is happening - its progress is debatable, but it's definitely changing on each iteration.

If anything it feels like it's becoming clear that iOS is not going to be a viable OSX replacement for most professional use cases without a huge bump up in complexity. At which point you have to wonder why bother with it at all? Microsoft seems to have a much clearer vision here and anecdotally I know quite a few people that have been Mac users for ages that have given up on iPads and bought Surface devices because…

I actually agree with you and others pitching Microsoft products as a better replacement for this sort of thing, for sure. I use the iPad Pro because I already had it, having purchased it for a different reason entirely. My only gripe with a Surface product would be the Windows part of it, which isn't THAT bad and like you said, they have a pretty clear vision for the future of it.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#56

Post by awad »

0xADEADBEE wrote: post #12

I'm struggling to work out why anyone would want to do this. Leaving aside the other concerns, I personally find input via touchscreen pretty painful and can't imagine being able to program at any real speed. It's entirely possible I'm missing something though!

They do make external keyboards for the iPad, for what it is worth.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#57

Post by flukus »

delinka wrote: post #29
flukus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's wrong with trying something out to see if it's ready yet? It will never be ready, it's the wrong tool for the job. Trying to use the wrong tool for the job is stupid, do you routinely try to hammer nails with a screwdriver to see if it's ready yet?

Hammers, nails, and screws a pretty much set. They're not changing regularly. An iPad becoming a laptop-replacement is happening - its progress is debatable, but it's definitely changing on each iteration.

> Hammers, nails, and screws a pretty much set.

Laptops, tablets, code and keyboards are pretty much set, they're not changing regularly. To code comfortably you need a keyboard, that's the tool for the job and one that tablets do not have. Sure you can add an external one, but then you've basically got a locked down laptop.

Just look at the the comments here, at best the iPad seems to be capable of acting as a dumb terminal to interact with a keyboard for a remote server, I wouldn't consider that coding on an iPad.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#58

Post by akerl_ »

zozbot123 wrote: post #51
akerl_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say coding using just a touchscreen would be terrible, but keep in mind that tablets aren't limited to just the touchscreen. In fact, you can plug a full-sized mechanical keyboard into an iPad (though the more common keyboard is likely the smartcover.

> I'd say coding using just a touchscreen would be terrible Text-based coding, sure. But the jury is still out for visual programming systems, of either the Scratch (syntax expressed via custom "puzzle pieces") or the LabVIEW (flow-based semantics) kind.

Agreed. Basically all my programming is backend / CLI projects. I'd almost certainly have had a different result if I'd tried writing frontend (especially native) apps from an iPad

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#60

Post by akerl_ »

cageface wrote: post #54
wlesieutre wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a very lightweight device with an excellent screen, impressive battery life, and the option for built-in LTE. But yeah, in terms of functional capability to connect to a server and type stuff, other devices would work as well. Also an excellent tablet when you’re doing non-coding stuff.

Yeah I get the upsides but if the debate is really around whether or not an iOS device can be used for real work I'm not sure this really makes the case. It's also massive overkill to use such a powerful device as a web terminal. I guess another way to state what I'm saying is that when the iPad first launched there was a lot of speculation about what new kinds of productivity apps would be enabled by a big, fast tou…

I don't know that I can agree here. I use an SSH app to do programming, which is largely "I type a bunch and run shell commands". I never expected that touchscreens would take over my coding workflows.

By contrast, the iPad has been pure joy for basically everything else. They've finally gotten multitasking support to what (for me) is an excellent balance between allowing multitasking and helping me avoid context-switching that was killing my productivity with my laptop. The support for diagramming / note-taking is amazing, which is a big part of my daily computer usage.

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