41–50 of 82 posts
When you are sshing into server you are using the server, not the local machine (beside the terminal and ssh app itself). Please correct the title.
Wait, what? This isn't about using an iPad as a development machine, it's about using a server as a development machine and an iPad + keyboard to access said development machine. I get that the author wants to use his iPad for day-to-day stuff, and that's fine, but it's a stretch to say it's their main programming machine when it's not actually running the "local" setup. Heck, it would drive me bananas having to stop…
Everything that's old is new again.
I feel a bit sorry for the author of the article to have put so much effort into fancy graphics and so on when he has completely missed the point. This isn't using your iPad as your main coding device. As someone else said earlier, this is a thin client at best.
Comments here went a bit crazy. Just think of the article as "The iPad Pro as main computing device for programming".
Should be titled, "I remotely tunnel to a server using my iPad Pro for programming" very misleading. Furthermore to the point: what's the benefit of tunneling to a remote machine for dev work? The latency would suck as would the overall slowness of things, it would drive you insane. You can hammer nails into a piece of wood using a rock, but why would you when you can use a hammer?
I sold my desktop, and now use a cheap £200 garbage laptop as a thin-client to my machine. Not only do I get incredible compile performance due to being able to use 16 core Xeon's, but I am not tied to any desktop.
I can whip out my phone and pop open a tmux session from anywhere, in an emergency I can hop onto a friends computer and thanks to SSH 2FA fearlessly login to my dev system with my full environment that I never have to close.
At this point, I would actively avoid jobs that wouldn't let me work this way. Currently got a sweet remote gig and I'm going to fly to Spain next week and spend a couple of weeks coding on the beach with my 3G tethered laptop.
Edit: Just to clarify, I don't need to work in an IDE or use any Windows software that I couldn't tunnel over X. So it might not work for everyone. Just wanted to give an example of it working out great for someone.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Furthermore to the point: what's the benefit of tunneling to a remote machine for dev work? You can do it from anywhere; you don't need a powerful local machine; controlling what devs do is easier; etc. 3 of my last 4 contracts have been development on remote machines. It's perfectly fine unless you somehow have abysmal networking (and then you really have bigger problems.)
In your instance though, it sounds like the development on remote machines was a client choice and not your own? The author is choosing to develop remotely themselves because Docker makes their MacBook get hot and burns their thighs when they don't wear pants. Would have just been easier to buy one of those laptop rests with inbuilt fans than spend money on a monthly server though, right?
I do 90% of my personal development on remote servers too.
1. iOS 11 now supports very basic multitasking, years after Android (and Windows mobile, if that counts)
2. iOS 11 has support for keyboard-shortcuts, which (you probably guessed it) Android has had full support for at least since Android 3.0 (and we're now at 8).
3. He does no actual local development and has moved his entire development setup into the cloud, rendering the iPad a mere terminal, and thus it as the base-platform utterly irrelevant.
The only one who can call the cost-benefit factor of this as a development setup "good", are the ones already so invested in Apple-stuff that they're blinded to everything else. Especially its inherent limitations, not to mention the obscene cost given the limited offering you get.
Really: The cheapest chinese Android-tablet you can find... And no, not one of the cheapest. I mean the utterly cheapest of the cheap Android-tablets you can find... Can do all this.
At probably 1/20th the cost.
And it can run local chroots and native docker-containers too, so you have full offline support.
What's offered as an "amazing" experience here is only amazing if you don't consider cost a factor in what you get to work with. And once you do, it's about as far from amazing as you can possibly get, probably worst in class.
Wait, what? This isn't about using an iPad as a development machine, it's about using a server as a development machine and an iPad + keyboard to access said development machine. I get that the author wants to use his iPad for day-to-day stuff, and that's fine, but it's a stretch to say it's their main programming machine when it's not actually running the "local" setup. Heck, it would drive me bananas having to stop…
“The Network is the Computer“
The show-stopper for me of all these set-ups is that you cannot sit on a sofa with your legs crossed and the machine on your lap which is by far the most comfortable setting for me
It's a very comfortable position, but not for the cervical spine. I just had an injury that according to the doc was because of this posture. I don't believe it though. Anyways, try not to sit in this position for long durations. The injury isn't fatal but will leave you with shooting pain in your arms and shoulders for weeks.
That said, I did twist out my back last year. My doc said ti was due to sports, but who knows.
MacBook 12” works great, has a better keyboard, is probably lighter/smaller than an iPad Pro Why not use that instead?
But seriously, I think these kinds of articles are great. I love to hear about people's different setups and trying to push what can be done on iPads. Why not?
The thing for me is that I absolutely LOVE my iPad (i have an Air2 for general use and a 12.9, mainly for art-related use) and I really, really want my iPads to do more -- to become more "real" work-capable. Why do I want that? I think the reason is because these things are so close to being a single thing to carry around. They are so perfect for certain things (web browsing, email, chat, and many types of gaming) that I would really like to keep expanding that list. I'd love a world where the iPad is the only device I take with me on trips.
I also think it's real important for everyone to keep pointing out the glaring flaws of tablets (iPads in particular). In a way, this article just reinforces the fact that the inability to do real, local programming work is a real limiter for a lot of people. Also, my favorite complaint is about just how awful selecting and editing text is. I'd love for Apple to fix these things.