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Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

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Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#521

Post by redeeman »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #223
redeeman wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i like how we are talking about an OS that initially released in 2007, and only got support for "opening files in place" in 2015. What a time to be alive, we can open files in place and all.. gotta give apple credit, while the rest of the world is reduced to lowly CopyOnWrite, they took it one step further, with CopyOnRead.

Given that we're in 2023 this seems like a weird hill to die on.

in 2007 when ios first released, we had the ability to open files without insanities everywhere else. it was total insanity it was not possible, part of the apple thinking that you only do what they 100% say. Who would dare have some video file that isnt in itunes? well certainly not someone the mighty apple cares about. so this lead to movie players also having builtin ftp/smb/nfs clients/servers to be able to access your content, god forbid you could just have files.

so yeah, to have a 2007-vintage API be "legacy that cannot open files properly" is a joke, pretending that it is not, is the apple reality distortion field

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#522

Post by arcticbull »

wkat4242 wrote: post #431
sofixa wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've read, it's mostly a battery issue (the battery is so dead the CPU gets heavily throttled).

I don't think so, the battery on one still works fine, and on the other I have replaced the internal battery with a DC-DC converter, so according to the tablet there is a "battery" which works fine and never runs dead :) I always do this when I use tablets as wall panels, because eventually the battery will bloat and possibly catches fire. This way I can remove the battery altogether. None of the tablets and phones I…

> None of the tablets and phones I have tested are capable of even starting up on USB power alone: With a dead battery or removed battery they simply won't even power on.

This is likely to combat instability. A large sudden spike in current draw that has to be supplied by the wall wart a few feet of wire away from the PCB can trigger a brown-out. Especially with the usual quantity of decoupling capacitors, specced around having a large current source on tap much closer to the point of use.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#523

Post by lazide »

pjmlp wrote: post #389
lazide wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way files are managed on iPadOS is terrible for 90% of ‘work’ except web browsing or email. It’s really awkward and slow, and IMO essentially unusable.

Many professionals beg otherwise, and are perfectly fine with documents as central concept of work unit, similar to Xerox Workstations.

That's not how the iPadOS treats files. Things are 'owned' by a single App, which makes moving data around or working on a common thing a real PITA except in very specific cases (and even then, it is often heavily controlled).

It's a 'App as a central work unit' type workflow, which is fine as long as you don't use more than a single piece of software/app to work on something.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#524

Post by lazide »

alistairSH wrote: post #367
lazide wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way files are managed on iPadOS is terrible for 90% of ‘work’ except web browsing or email. It’s really awkward and slow, and IMO essentially unusable.

And yet photographers are able to use various Adobe (or similar) products to do real-time edits/sharing of their work. Most people don't need 100% control over the file-system. As long as the particular type of file they manipulate is available in the app they want to use, an iPad works pretty well.

If they have a single app/app suite that does everything, then sure that's fine (as long as it isn't things like copying a lot of data off an SD card or whatever) - the OS doesn't get involved much.

That isn't a common use case unless someone is paying a ton of money for a single, specialized piece of software that does everything they want, and the iPad only is used for that one thing. Which is a very limited subset of 'work'.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#525

Post by manmal »

pjmlp wrote: post #489
manmal wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moment macOS is shackled any more, I'll move to Linux. And I suspect I'm not alone in this, and that Apple knows.

I keep reading that every time Microsoft pushes something some folks don't like, yet Year of Linux Desktop has become a meme.

macOS has no exclusive apps that I use, while most of the games I‘m interested in and lots of exotic inhouse tools only work on Windows.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#526

Post by siddbudd »

sublinear wrote: post #57
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…

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.

Nothing special indeed about a Macbook Air M1. I need to hear my machine working, but this thing does not even have a cooling fan. I can always put on noise-cancelling headphones if my machine sounds like it's about to lift off. Not to mention Apple Silicon is a joke, the Threadripper in my almost mobile workstation beats it any time. Meanwhile the battery cannot even last a standard Earth day, so why not just stick to power outlets?

All kidding aside, the (lack of) ports and the non-upgradability can be meaningfully criticized, but then again a lot of competitors are copying those anti-features. But to say there is nothing special about these machines... well, maybe not to you. Some people hate noisy laptop fans, and this total silence is a game changer.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#527

Post by musicale »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #206

> 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…

> 5m of research could have shown this...

Indeed

> i think this product is only good for artists who needs a specific ipad app or someone who really needs a writing device to use with Apple specific app only. or if you can expense it at work.

Procreate (with the Apple pencil) is definitely a killer app for the iPad.

The iPad is also amazing for musicians, particularly in terms of the wide variety of excellent synth (Animoog, Sunrizer, Korg and Moog apps...) and music production apps (Gadget, Cubasis, Logic...) And it's great for sheet music (ForScore).

It's a nice gaming device as well. I particularly appreciate card games like Monster Train or digital board games like Ticket to Ride, but there are also some great RPGs, strategy games, action games, Apple Arcade, and many games with controller support.

Although I've written code on it (Swift Playgrounds, Pythonista...) and have enjoyed writing text in landscape mode (Pages), the iPad's creative/fun apps are the ones that make me keep coming back to it. That and reading stuff on the web, and magazines in Apple News+. Netflix looks surprisingly good on the iPad screen, but the 4:3 aspect ratio isn't a perfect match for modern shows or movies. It's also my gym youtube player.

Sadly the duolingo iOS app is marred by excessive ad interruptions and an energy system, but the web app works well on a touchscreen.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#528

Post by abwizz »

wlesieutre wrote: post #334
abwizz wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would also be nice if webdav could just be mounted. i mean caldav and carddav are supported in base os, whats the problem?

I don't know about WebDAV but it does let you mount SMB shares. If you need WebDAV I think Documents by Readdle will do it, and maybe even makes the share available to other apps though its File Provider. But I'm not sure what parts of Documents are subscription based now since I have a paid copy from before it went subscription. It even has the option to keep a local copy of folders from network shares so you can us…

i'm using documents in free mode for some time, might be worth it if it can really transparently make webdav available to other apps.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#529

Post by LaSombra »

skydhash wrote: post #467
LaSombra wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple might still be gearing towards adding macOS in the iPad only because the macOS interface has been adding padding, in almost all recent releases, while screens have remained the same size. I don't see any other reason for added padding around controls apart from a touch screen future.

Designers changing stuff to have something to do? The system preferences redesign is the first thing that has bugged me (I moved to Mac around 2019). There was no need at all and because they use Catalyst, the icons, and the text are tiny.

Might be the first step into evaluating this course of action. Who knows?

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#530

Post by nunez »

I've been using an iPad Pro for coding for a year now.

I traded in a M1 MacBook Pro for it and don't miss it at all.

It's great if you use a text-based IDE or can Tailscale back into your home network and connect to VSCode remotely.

Aside from Tailscale, I use Screens to VNC into my Macs at home and Blink to SSH in.

I really enjoy being able to detach the tablet from the keyboard and use it for drawing stuff/reading/etc. Super nice during flights when you're taking off or landing and can't use laptops.

It's also absolutely killer for demos. I'm in presales. People LOVE hand-drawn demos or slide deck demos that you can draw on, since most people are very visual. I look like a goddamn magician every time I go from drawing "slides" on my iPad to firing up a terminal with ease.

(That said, iOS REALLY needs to support global external monitor resolutions. There is an API that allows apps to display at different resolutions, but users have zero control over that.)

The only things I miss are shortcuts for Mission Control (I use virtual spaces heavily) and screenshots (you can take a screenshot by diagonally dragging a finger from the bottom right side of the screen to the center, but that's tedious and so is the UI for handling the screenshot)

I tried this many years ago with the 2018 iPad Pro and was much less successful then due to iOS limitations.

All this said, I can definitely see people hating the experience. You can't do multiple windows (Stage Manager sucks and split screen is limited) and you can't work locally at all.

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