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Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

panic.com

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Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#31

Post by mpiche »

jrockway wrote: post #8

So, as a UNIX hacker, here's what I don't get about the iOS community. There is way too much excitement over the simplest things ever. Let's break down some of the copy for this app: Prompt is a clean, crisp, and cheerful SSH client What does that mean? What does a clean ssh client do; not commit any protocol violations? What is crisp? When you bite into it, it's like a ripe apple? What does cheerful mean? Is the ssh…

"So I googled for "ssh client", found your page, and you're telling me who uses ssh clients. How would you get to this page without knowing what ssh is, and how would you know what ssh is without needing to use it?"

There are many ways to arrive on that page that do not involve googling for "ssh client". It's a blog for a software company, but there are other topics on that blog that don't have anything to do with software (like food, retro games, and design). Anyone can read it, not just the geeks who know what SSH is.

Point being: Why obscure what the app does to people who are less familiar with terminals or SSH? I don't see any fault in trying to educate others about the app by giving non-technical readers concrete answers of who would most likely use it.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#35

Post by ugh »

jrockway wrote: post #8

So, as a UNIX hacker, here's what I don't get about the iOS community. There is way too much excitement over the simplest things ever. Let's break down some of the copy for this app: Prompt is a clean, crisp, and cheerful SSH client What does that mean? What does a clean ssh client do; not commit any protocol violations? What is crisp? When you bite into it, it's like a ripe apple? What does cheerful mean? Is the ssh…

Making a good SSH client for touchscreen devices is hard. Touchscreen devices have limited screen real estate and non-standard (read: limited) keyboards.

As to the language: Clean and crisp say both pretty much the same thing in that sentence, crisp is only along for the alliteration (as is cheerful). My Latin teacher would be delighted.

It's marketing, but it also makes sense. Not all apps are created equal, even if they all do the same simple thing, especially on touchscreen devices. It's more about selling you the keyboard (a suitable keyboard for SSH clients doesn't come standard with touchscreen devices) than about selling you the client.

Oh, and why do they include a description of the target group? Maybe because some people read the Panic blog without knowing what the hell SSH is? Those Panic guys are are pretty well known.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#36

Post by swombat »

ezy wrote: post #30

iSSH is still better. Especially on an iPad, and most definitely if you use a bluetooth keyboard once in a while [1] Furthermore, I don't understand how someone could even make the remark that an ssh client reminds them of linux, and mean it negatively. :-) I certainly don't want an the equivalent IOS SSH client to the one Apple makes for OSX -- Terminal is rather shitty. [1] BT keyboards on ipads don't support CTRL…

As a happy user of Terminal, what's wrong with it? It's fast, it's simple, it supports multiple colour profiles, it can be customised like any other shell... What more do you want out of your terminals?

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#37

Post by rufo »

ezy wrote: post #30

iSSH is still better. Especially on an iPad, and most definitely if you use a bluetooth keyboard once in a while [1] Furthermore, I don't understand how someone could even make the remark that an ssh client reminds them of linux, and mean it negatively. :-) I certainly don't want an the equivalent IOS SSH client to the one Apple makes for OSX -- Terminal is rather shitty. [1] BT keyboards on ipads don't support CTRL…

Better how?

iSSH has more features (the port-forwarding alone will keep me using it), but Prompt seems to have the basic login-and-command-line functionality working far better than any other client I've used. (All IMO, of course.)

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#38

Post by xyzzyb »

swombat wrote: post #36
ezy wrote: post #30

iSSH is still better. Especially on an iPad, and most definitely if you use a bluetooth keyboard once in a while [1] Furthermore, I don't understand how someone could even make the remark that an ssh client reminds them of linux, and mean it negatively. :-) I certainly don't want an the equivalent IOS SSH client to the one Apple makes for OSX -- Terminal is rather shitty. [1] BT keyboards on ipads don't support CTRL…

As a happy user of Terminal, what's wrong with it? It's fast, it's simple, it supports multiple colour profiles, it can be customised like any other shell... What more do you want out of your terminals?

Indeed. Paired with gnu screen and some bash scripts Terminal is very nice.

I've got, for example, ctrl+a+t setup to trigger a script that opens a new screen tab, prompts for [user@]host:, starts up an ssh session to the host, renames the tab to host for easy reference.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#39

Post by jcsalterego »

jrockway wrote: post #8

So, as a UNIX hacker, here's what I don't get about the iOS community. There is way too much excitement over the simplest things ever. Let's break down some of the copy for this app: Prompt is a clean, crisp, and cheerful SSH client What does that mean? What does a clean ssh client do; not commit any protocol violations? What is crisp? When you bite into it, it's like a ripe apple? What does cheerful mean? Is the ssh…

I would wager part of the excitement is that Panic is an excellent and long-standing company in the Apple community, and they've proven time and time again they can release quality, beautiful software.

As the type of Mac user that has one foot in the console and one foot in the pretty GUI that is OS X, it's pretty great when someone can bridge that gap -- be it a kickass Terminal like iTerm2, or what I can only expect is an excellent app from Panic, Prompt.

Skip the marketing (still good copy to read), find some way to use the app and judge Panic that way.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#40

Post by bxr »

jrockway wrote: post #8

So, as a UNIX hacker, here's what I don't get about the iOS community. There is way too much excitement over the simplest things ever. Let's break down some of the copy for this app: Prompt is a clean, crisp, and cheerful SSH client What does that mean? What does a clean ssh client do; not commit any protocol violations? What is crisp? When you bite into it, it's like a ripe apple? What does cheerful mean? Is the ssh…

>Anyway, a lot of happy-sounding words for [...]

I agree. I use ssh somewhere around 10 hours per weekday, have used a bunch of different clients, and really have no idea what sets this application apart from any other ssh client other than a bunch of vague adjectives. If they can't manage to set the product apart, at all, why am I going to give it a look?

I know some of the other comments here excuse that by saying its marketing, or that these words are to describe the interface. Thats good and all, but if you're trying to sell me an ssh client, its OK (hell, almost mandatory) to assume you're talking to a slightly technical audience. Show us the nitty gritty that will make me _want_ to pick this application over any other. As much as I clicked around, I couldn't find anything.

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