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Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

technicallychallenged.substack.com

251–260 of 533 posts

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple marketed the iPad Pro as a replacement for a computer Nah, they were using an extremely narrow definition of computer, one where you can buy and consume stuff and do "cool" social media with the device. If that's not your use case you want a different kind of computer.

you can't even do social media on an ipad, it runs it in that small iphone emulator mode

f*ck social media at this point

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#252

Boggles the mind why people still fall for the iPad Pro as a serious work machine beyond writing meme. The fact that Final Cut launched on it recently and while its exporting you have to sit there leaving the app open you can't go do something else is the punchline of the decade for the lie that this is a serious machine. This is before we get into the comical evolution from "You just need the touchscreen" to "Actual…

> This is before we get into the comical evolution from "You just need the touchscreen" to "Actually physical keys are good for long typing" iPad and a keyboard case

This part is a straw man. When the iPad was first introduced in 2010, there was an iPad stand, keyboard contraption that SJ showed off. The iPad has always supported Bluetooth keyboards.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t. That’s the point. I want to have device that adjusts to my needs instead of keeping a zoo of specialized devices. iPad Pro has powerful enough hardware to be a full blown productivity machine when connected to a keyboard, but convenient enough interface to be a media consumption device in bed.

"Zoo" is quite the exaggeration; we're talking two devices instead of one. I'd rather have an iPad Pro for the bedroom (!) and a high-powered desktop Mac for the office than something that tries to be both of those things and ends up failing at both.

Yeah but you still need a phone and then we're looking pretty zoo like.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember seeing an editorial about the rumored release of the iSlate (yes, that's what people thought it'd be called) circa 2010. It said that if the iPad was a Macbook, all would be well. But if it was a large iPhone, it would set back tablet/mobile computing a decade. I think it ended up being a little dramatic, but I agree that the iPad being as shackled as its been has been a net negative for computing.

> I think it ended up being a little dramatic, but I agree that the iPad being as shackled as its been has been a net negative for computing. ...well the war on general purpose computing is on, so, unfortunately, the iOS/Android model is "the future". It won't be long until macOS and Windows are just as shackled. Things are definitely moving in that direction right now.

And people have been saying the sky is falling and Apple will force all Mac apps to go through the App Store since 2011.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too was skeptical for a long time, but a couple of days ago, after spotting a second hand iPad (6th gen from 2018) for 90€, I picked it up and I’m actually super impressed. The difference here is expectation vs. money spent and the value received. Last time I had a tablet, it was the Nexus 7-inch (the screen size of modern phones) and my GF’s surface tablet with 2-4GB of RAM running an entire desktop Windows experi…

iPads are great tablets - even the cheapest ones. You can't go wrong with any iPads from the last n-3 generations. But they are tablets. They do tablet-y things great. Other things not so much.

Yeah, I always thought it’s only good for architects with their drawings or for businesses offering product configurators and such to their customers in their physical spaces or museums, etc. But look at that, instead of carrying one more paper notebook in my bag I now have this extra thing in addition to my laptop and it’s pretty good!

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#257

> But if you need to run Xcode, VSCode, WebStorm, or Intellij than as far as I can tell the iPad is a no go. > It's expensive. After buying a powerful pro model, a decent keyboard, and a pencil the price ended up being MORE than a laptop I could have used for even more coding activities. 5m of research could have shown this... i think this product is only good for artists who needs a specific ipad app or someone who…

code-server works really well on the iPad. Make a web-app and you have VSCode as pretty much a full citizen. (Except of course you need a network connection and a remote system.) When I’m traveling light, this is an excellent solution. That said, no one should buy an iPad foremostly to code on.

No, no it doesn't work really well. iOS Safari aggressively suspends tabs in the background. So when you switch from editor to webpage, it will often suspend your editor, forcing it to refresh when you flip back to it and you lose the ssh connection, debugger, or whatever else you have running. And if you're debugging a front end in a certain state, it will suspend that, and refresh it when you return, losing that important state. Very infuriating experience. I tried for months to make my iPad Pro an acceptable dev environment, both locally and remotely via code-server, and the OS just isn't there (yet). Maybe someday.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If apps are still handling files that way instead of being able to open documents from anywhere in your local files, iCloud Drive, it’s on the developer. Hasn’t been the case for years that this is the way files work, you should be able to save them to your Downloads folder (or elsewhere) and open them in whichever app you want. Give PDF Viewer a look if you want better file handling: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pd…

some apps use the proper api but thats not the norm yet, PDF Viewer uses it correctly

Which apps would that be?

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#259

iPads are amazing for certain professional tasks: - Artists (still or motion) - Writing (or related tasks like Editing) - Mobile roles (sales, aspects of healthcare such as patient record accessibility, etc) But, even in these cases with there is good alignment, you still lose productivity over a more traditional setup, usually due to restrictions around file management, keyboard shortcuts (usually due to “less than”…

I just want to add if you do try external monitors, the experience is subpar.

You can't select which audio output to use, there's no clamshell mode, there are no real mouse settings for scrolling or secondary buttons, and some apps don't allow you to go full screen on a larger display.

Even apps you'd expect to work great like the Affinity suite just sort of don't function on a monitor.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#260

> But if you need to run Xcode, VSCode, WebStorm, or Intellij than as far as I can tell the iPad is a no go. > It's expensive. After buying a powerful pro model, a decent keyboard, and a pencil the price ended up being MORE than a laptop I could have used for even more coding activities. 5m of research could have shown this... i think this product is only good for artists who needs a specific ipad app or someone who…

Of everything I've tried, the ipad is still by far my favourite media consumption device. Browsing the web using touch is an absolute joy and the thin, large screen form factor is really convenient. It's just a shame they're so expensive and fragile; I'm waiting a few years now before I can justify buying another one.

My iPad is my favorite computer to use by far. It's five years old now and I'd buy a new one if I could find some reason to do so. My problem isn't that it does so little but rather that it does everything I want it to do.

Articles like this one never feel very genuine to me. It would be like buying a Honda Civic and then complaining that you can't really carry 4x8 sheets of plywood with it.

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