Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake • Hacker News Board

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#91

Post by ulfw » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 5:59 AM UTC

planb wrote: post #39

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 devic…

My iPad 12.9 is larger and heavier than my 13.6 Macbook Air and the screen is comparable in size. Not sure I buy your small screen argument.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#92

Post by senttoschool » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:02 AM UTC

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #83

speedgoose wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven’t used a Mac laptop recently I assume.

no I've just been using arm64 devices for like 6 years now and the advantages of the m1/m2 are present in any laptop or tablet that is arm64. endless battery, fanless design, excellent performance for the kinds of tasks a developer does. only downside is the m2 is probably faster in cpu/compilation times for certain things because of how fast it is

That's funny. It compiles so fast for a laptop that your break times are shorter. Bosses are happy. You're not.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#93

Post by DennisAleynikov » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:02 AM UTC

galkk wrote: post #84

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use both hosted VSCode, Codespace as well as other web based software. I also program from smart fridges, toasters and random garbage (for my own entertainment) because basically anything can open vscode.dev login to github and use a terminal. saying "b-but my ipad can code" is insane if the definition of code is opening a browser. I can't believe I have to explain such a basic concept to an adult

This is just playing with words. Coding doesn't mean that you must have full fledged ide like intellij on local machine. Largest ipad screen is about same as old macbook air, and combined with keyboard it can be used as dev machine no problem.

yeah I agree. you don't need to code locally.

basically any device can code. an ipad is definitely capable of that entry level definition of programming, there is definitely many workspaces like yours that mostly have cloud infrastructure and don't have any codebases small enough to fit on basically any laptop or desktop pc.

yes it would be nice if there were larger screen ipads, but also I think ipads are capable of some kind of escape hatch mode where they run macos locally. all of the woes of the iPad are caused by running iOS, not being too weak or made with bad hardware.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#94

Post by justinclift » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:03 AM UTC

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…

For me, after doing a bunch of evaluation I went with buying an old (and very cheap) 2nd hard Surface Pro 3 on Ebay to see if that could possibly do the job.

... and yep, it does even with just Windows on it. Technically Linux can be loaded onto these things, and apparently works pretty well. But, I never got around to trying that out.

About a year later I dropped the damn thing and completely shattered the screen. Still haven't replaced it, but mean to at some point. Again, not with an iPad, but probably a newer generation Surface Pro. And I'll put Linux on it this time. :)

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#95

Post by barbariangrunge » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:03 AM UTC

rabuse wrote: post #85

barbariangrunge wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad Pro has a better keyboard, amazingly. The air is too shallow, at least the m2 anyway. The m1 airs and pros had better keyboards

I have a 14" pro, and a 15" air. The keyboards are essentially identical.

They definitely aren’t. It’s subtle, but I find the m2 airs to be maddening to type on, and I miss keystrokes all the time, but the 14 inch pros are really nice to type on. Unless the m2 airs I typed on were duds /from a factory that messed up the spec

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#96

Post by DennisAleynikov » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:03 AM UTC

senttoschool wrote: post #92

DennisAleynikov wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no I've just been using arm64 devices for like 6 years now and the advantages of the m1/m2 are present in any laptop or tablet that is arm64. endless battery, fanless design, excellent performance for the kinds of tasks a developer does. only downside is the m2 is probably faster in cpu/compilation times for certain things because of how fast it is

That's funny. It compiles so fast for a laptop that your break times are shorter. Bosses are happy. You're not.

new kind of first world problem just dropped: code compiles too fast

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#97

Post by ed » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:05 AM UTC

This question becomes more relevant when you consider the vision pro is essentially a head-mounted iPad.

I wish the author would say how they tried to get a working development environment. E.g.: VSCode Server?

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/vscode-server

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#98

Post by WheelsAtLarge » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:06 AM UTC

It's been over 10 yrs since its introduction and it pretty much has the same utility as it had at the start. Coding on an iPad is just not part of Apple's plan for it. I don't expect it to be a good choice now or ever.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#99

Post by yread » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:06 AM UTC

VectorLock wrote: post #81

sublinear wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, just get any laptop really. There's nothing special about a Mac unless you need to do native development for Apple devices, and I'd suggest a Mac Mini for that.

MacBookPros have been pretty much for the past decade+ the undisputed leader of rugged hardware design. Nobody else to my knowledge sells machined unibody laptops at a competitive price point. (Only half jokingly posting this hoping somebody can't help to attempt to prove me wrong)

Why do you want a unibody? Isn't it better to open it up and and stick a multi TB ssd and 64GB RAM in, lioe I did with my EliteBook 840?

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#100

Post by koinedad » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 6:06 AM UTC

rabuse wrote: post #89

warning26 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have both — I’d love the to use iPad as a secondary travel machine, since it’s far lighter and also was much less expensive. But sadly it really can’t be used for much beyond light web browsing.

Much less expensive that what? Air's start at $999...

Got mine for $799 at Costco