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Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

andrewbrookins.com

161–170 of 196 posts

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#161
post #106

This seems like an exercise in masochism. Why would you want to code on an OS targeted for smartphones and without any native compiler support? To those who want LTE connectivity, I don't think you know there's a device called the Thinkpad X1 with this functionality built in. Or is it that coding on tablets is considered "hip" these days?

Sidebar - why do people even want built in LTE? It makes no sense to me when tethering is so fast, convenient, and doesn’t require an extra bill!

Laptops with LTE have much better antennas, you don't have to think about charging/discharging two devices and any decent cell operator will give you second (third...) sim on the same bill as your first one. When abroad, you can have your original sim in your phone and local sim with local rates in your laptop.

Also, the laptop will get location/gps capabilities, which you do not get with tethered phone.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#162

Why not use a Surface? It's built with a physical keyboard as a first class experience, and you're not limited in what you can run. The only limitation is the lack of a polished POSIX environment, but that will of course be missing on iOS too.

So much telemetry on windows these days...

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and also the fact that it could connect to cellular networks with a SIM card I never actually understood that. Everyone carries a cellphone, can't you just do tethering? that's what I do anyways. I guess the only advantage of an iPad with SIM is that is 'always connected' as opposed to click and connect to your mobile hotspot?

Tethering drains the phone battery very fast, and your phone is usually the one thing that you want to die last on you. But there are plenty of laptops with integrated SIM card slot and modem, and the rest of them can be extended with the same via USB.

You can tether by USB on android devices and charge it at same time.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I was in a hurry I’d buy a replacement device, restore from iCloud, and then return it in a week when my original device is back from warranty.

That’s a lot of cash to tie up.

Sure, but at least it's only tied up temporarily, rather than permanently if you buy a new device.

I wonder if it's possible to rent a decent Macbook though?

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the parent means that x86 devices, specifically a favorite of mine, the Surface Pro, can provide mostly all of that and then some, but without the hassle of iOS: * 3:2 screen ratio, 267 PPI * Despite an i5 it has instant on, connected standby, LTE built in * 9h of web browsing on battery: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13471/the-microsoft-surface-p... * Fanless * Charges in 2h40m * Does not get hot * Can run…

Do you know if it can run Windows 10 LTSB? The telemetry on regular Windows 10 is a deterrent.

x86 is x86, so I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't?

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're arguing against responsive webdesign. Any decent website should look exactly the same on the iPad and a desktop window of equal size. If it doesn't, the developer rather than the browser is to blame.

the problem is that most websites want things to look "exactly" a certain way and use responsive to hit you with this jackboot. it is genuinely painful to use some sites like reddit nowadays coz of the wasted space

There will always be different user expectations and, unfortunately, plain bad design decisions. Reddit's new design probably belongs in that category.

I don't see how that is Safari's problem to solve. The original claim was that Safari on iOS isn't a "full" browser, which I can't agree with.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sidebar - why do people even want built in LTE? It makes no sense to me when tethering is so fast, convenient, and doesn’t require an extra bill!

Laptops with LTE have much better antennas, you don't have to think about charging/discharging two devices and any decent cell operator will give you second (third...) sim on the same bill as your first one. When abroad, you can have your original sim in your phone and local sim with local rates in your laptop. Also, the laptop will get location/gps capabilities, which you do not get with tethered phone.

What can you do with GPS on a laptop ? I know it used to be a thing back in the day, but what's the main use case?

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptops with LTE have much better antennas, you don't have to think about charging/discharging two devices and any decent cell operator will give you second (third...) sim on the same bill as your first one. When abroad, you can have your original sim in your phone and local sim with local rates in your laptop. Also, the laptop will get location/gps capabilities, which you do not get with tethered phone.

What can you do with GPS on a laptop ? I know it used to be a thing back in the day, but what's the main use case?

Depends on what do you do with the computer. Some of my colleagues need location out in the field for GIS/WFM purposes.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#169
post #57
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.

> 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…

Looks like you're intentionally missing the point. The iPad is a tablet, and yes, it's functionality is changing every iteration - slightly with hardware, more so with the OS.

Currently the iPad might not seem capable of much wrt programming, but it is changing. Therefore someone tests it out periodically. And you don't have to like it. It doesn't have to be you testing the thing out. You're completely free to live an iPad-free life.

Re: Coding on an iPad Pro in 2019

#170

This is the reason I ditched the iPad for a Surface. Windows isn't my preferred environment but the ability to run my normal tools (IDEs, command line tools, etc) really was a game changer. iPad Pro is great for creative workflows, but it's a shame it leaves programmers in the dust. It would be really great even to see something like XCode come to iOS

I own a Surface device, an iPad Pro, and a Macbook Pro. While I write code on all of them, macOS is still the king of development environments. On macOS, you can just work. That's what the end goal should be in other platforms. I doubt iOS will ever get there. I mean, how are you supposed to copy and paste code from Vim running in tmux inside of Blink? With your finger? Hell's bells! Windows is just too weird. If you…

When you run whatever OS inside a VM, chances are that they are not using any GPU you have available in the host (unless you spent your time with making vfio work). Instead, they are using emulated graphics, which isn't exactly high performance with any guest os.

Anyway, the important thing to achieve performance inside VM is storage, not graphics. If your VM is stored inside a file on the host filesystem, it is going to be way slower compared to VM using dedicated partition, lv or physical disk passed through. The effect is the same, as using classic HDD vs SSD in your host.

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