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Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

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Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#51

Post by ugh »

pluies wrote: post #46
ugh wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Technically, an alliteration is based on the sound. So while "clean", "crisp" and "client" are an alliteration (beginning with the [k] sound), cheerful (beginning with [tʃ]) isn't part of it.

My Latin teacher would not be disappointed by my failure because she knows that I have never been all that interested or good at that stuff ;)

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#52

Post by guygurari »

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…

What does a clean ssh client do; not commit any protocol violations?

Anyway, a lot of happy-sounding words for ... a program that decrypts text from the Internet and writes it to the screen.

You're focusing on features. They're talking about design.

How do you type ctrl-c? How do you type the arrow keys? Any client must support these features. The differentiator is the design -- how easy they are to use, how nice they look, etc.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#53

Post by ezy »

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?

To choose a few obvious gaffes:

- no xterm mouse support (no, option-click is not the same)

- the utterly stupid default for PageUp/PageDown/Home/End, which is correct for OSX UI, but utterly wrong for terminals.

Less obvious (relavent to UI):

- No notification support

- No window splitting (yes, screen works, but, re: changing panes, see xterm mouse, above)

- inability to launch a particular named window group from the command line (if this is possible, please tell me how! :-))

...And much, much more! [1]

[1] :-) And I guess that's about it for the things that bugged me compared to, you know, the actual xterm.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#57

Post by bxr »

rimantas wrote: post #49
bxr wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

assume you're talking to a slightly technical audience Some, even in technical audience have a taste for good UI.

Ok, and thanks for assuming from my post that I don't care about interface, but then show me _that_. All I see other than an generic iOS interface is a keyboard with a few convenience keys. Is that it?

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#58

Post by rflrob »

ugh wrote: post #35
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…

> 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.

If that's the case, why not mention it a bit more in the post? I agree that a good keyboard layout is important, but the closest they come is saying "customizable special keys".

I like iSSH's ability to do a semi-transparent overlay keyboard to maximize screen real estate. Can prompt do this as well?

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#59

Post by doron »

Slightly off-topic I couldn't find a free SSH Ios app.

not that 4-5$ is a big deal, but there are myriad of ssh clients for free on android, no doubt due to different clientele, and different developer sentiments.

Re: Introducing Prompt. Nice SSH for iOS.

#60

Post by dhimes »

jimwise wrote: post #15

I'd been using touchterm for a while, and had experimented with other iOS ssh clients. They... worked, but the experience always felt a bit clunky. I've been using prompt for a day now, and so far it feels better than the others. The app design feels really clean, the method of expanding the keyboard to handle modifier keys and frequently-used non-alpha keys works well without grabbing too much screen real estate (th…

I just bought it. It is slow and unresponsive to me- I have to wait for the screen to catch up with my typing. I'm on an iPhone4- so it's not like I'm typing fast. Nice, clean design though.
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