[ohstopitu]

A while back I was considering getting an iPad pro as my primary device (during travel, commute, time pass etc.) because I really wanted a light device that did the following:

1. Pen support (it's so much more natural when mind mapping ideas for projects)

2. Great App Support (this kinda made me drop windows as the app store on windows is terrible)

3. A device to develop on (so I could run something along the lines of docker, node etc.)

4. Awesome battery life

I felt that the iPad did 3 of my 4 asks, and I considered using mosh + vim to code in the cloud. However, my vim skills are "meh" at best.

Currently I'm using a cheap windows device (a $500 Asus laptop) and it does not do any of the things I wanted perfectly.

This project appears to change that, because I feel that it won't be too far out of the way to consider getting a native iPad app for such an editor that did everything in the cloud.

[cbhl]

I love tablet hardware -- I remember using the second-generation iPad when it came out, and I have a Pixel C now. But the software just isn't there; it's not general purpose, and you end up with a lot of crippled mobile apps that are shadows of the Desktop equivalents. Plus you can't type the symbols that coding wants {}[]();

I'm really hoping that will get better next year, with Chromebooks that can run Android apps, the 12" USB Type-C Macbook, as well as Windows x86-on-ARM emulation.

[btschaegg]

Same here. I still have high hopes for the Purism Librem 11[1]. I really like the tablet form factor, but every option so far seemed rather "meh" to me.

I'm looking for a real computing device and don't want to be confined to "toy operating systems" - the option for touch-optimized apps is nice, but unless there is a viable way to use desktop- (and especially terminal-)focused software without hacks I don't really see the long-term appeal.

Purism seem to essentially sell exactly what I'm looking for; plus: There are camera and mic kill switches, which to me seems like something that should've been the default ten years ago...

[1]: https://puri.sm/products/librem-11/

[ktta]

You can always use a bluetooth keyboard to solve the obscure symbol problem.

[s73ver]

I would think that using a bt keyboard would be an absolute requirement if you were planning on doing a lot of coding on a tablet.

[skrowl]

Have you looked at Chromebook Plus or Pro?

Much better browser, pen, and keyboard at less than half the price of iPad Pro + Keyboard + Pen.

[ohstopitu]

not specifically the Chromebook plus/pro but I did try the Toshiba Chromebook when it first came out, and I was kinda disappointed - felt like a locked down version of Linux to be totally honest - and all in all, it suffers from all the same problems that my windows device faces anyway.