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Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

technicallychallenged.substack.com

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Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#31

Post by divbzero »

In my experience, iPad + keyboard works okay for coding if you SSH into a remote machine [1] and use a terminal-based text editor like emacs or vim. Alternatively, you can use a Git client [2] to code locally but that prevents you from using your preferred text editor or the command line. In theory, Visual Studio Code for the Web [3] could work too though I haven’t tried that approach personally.

I first experimented with iPad coding around 2013 and have tried it periodically since. I haven’t noticed a dramatic improvement in the coding experience over the past decade: Even today, iPad coding just “okay” and not great because laptops are still more versatile at windows management.

[1]: https://termius.com/free-ssh-client-for-ipad

[2]: https://workingcopyapp.com/

[3]: https://vscode.dev/

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#32

Post by DennisAleynikov »

ribosometronome wrote: post #28
DennisAleynikov wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"you can visit a website" okay my smart toaster is an excellent dev machine as well I'm looking for something like swift playgrounds++ so baby xcode, not a remote window

Does your smart toaster have a form factor and portability that leads you to suspect it could be a useful coding device? I can't say I've found the two to be equally useful in all situations... like, I'm personally way more comfortable using my iPad in the bath than my toaster.

personally I wouldn't bring a toaster into the bathtub... but maybe my samsung smartfridge will be my next desk. who needs to buy a table, much less a standing desk?

just stand in your kitchen and use the browser on your fridge to open vscode.dev! ergonomics like nothing else <3

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#33

Post by trustingtrust »

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #19
behnamoh wrote: post #14

I’ve owned ipads for a long time and their productivity benefits compared to my Mac and iphone has never improved over the years. This year I’m selling my last ipad and won’t buy again until Apple throws a “real” OS at the thing. one of the worst things about ios is that files get copied for each app. Say I download a PDF in the Documents app and want to annotate it. As soon as I open it with NoteX, a copy of the PDF…

I can't wait for ipads to mature

With M1 this was something that people hoped would happen. But right now all I use my iPad for is binge watching in my bed. I’ve owned an M1 air for a year and that’s literally all I do with it. If I had a TV in my room the utility of the iPad would be zero for me.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#35

Post by p1necone »

71a54xd wrote: post #22

Reasonable people should not be surprised by this

You say this but there's a lot of unreasonable people around.

There's always someone who has cobbled together a workflow on an ipad for whatever they're doing relying on like 5 different commercial applications and a bunch of sacrifices just to approximate what they'd get if they just used a macbook/windows/linux instead. And when you try to point this out to them they get defensive and basically pull the "everyone is entitled to their own opinion" argument except replace "opinion" with "arbitrarily kneecapped workflow"

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#36

Post by [deleted] »

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #19
behnamoh wrote: post #14

I’ve owned ipads for a long time and their productivity benefits compared to my Mac and iphone has never improved over the years. This year I’m selling my last ipad and won’t buy again until Apple throws a “real” OS at the thing. one of the worst things about ios is that files get copied for each app. Say I download a PDF in the Documents app and want to annotate it. As soon as I open it with NoteX, a copy of the PDF…

I can't wait for ipads to mature

[deleted]

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#39

Post by planb »

I don't see what people expect. The iPad is a portable touch-first device with a small screen and a locked-down operating system. The first two are by-design for the tablet form factor, so this will never change. And I don't expect Apple to open up the system, but it does not sound as if this was the main concern in this article.

So why not simply get a MacBook Air, which is a completely capable, awesome coding device?

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#40

Post by DennisAleynikov »

oynqr wrote: post #18
DennisAleynikov wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by this definition a chromebook is an excellent programming machine

I mean, you can run actual Linux applications on those. Only limit is gonna be the mostly crappy hardware. Although I guess that could be to the benefit of everyone actually using your software.

yeah I actually use the Lenovo Duet 5, its an excellent arm64 chromebook with with some of the best battery life I've ever had on a "laptop" (its a tablet hybrid)
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