The app is really slick. I'm surprised they were allowed to have their own window manager as Apple were very against that in the past. But I really like it. It actually is a nice take on a desktop environment on a tablet.
I'm curious it being Node.js. It can run my js file on flight mode so isn't using a remote execution. But I didn't believe you could run node.js on an iPad due to the Apple restrictions (hopefully I'm wrong).
That said, the whole ecosystem of Node.js is about bringing in modules. I can't see any mention of how to do that.
It's because they've recreated the internal menus, window snapping, ability to overlay windows and has a desktop. It looks like an OS. Apple were against this in the past because it doesn't align with their OS way of doing things. I never liked the rule so I'm excited to see that it looks like they've relaxed it in recent years.
I finally found it. It's the "create an alternate desktop environment" part that I would say this falls under. Mostly because you have a desktop and they've created a new windowing environment that isn't native to iOS.
>> 2.5.8 Apps that create alternate desktop/home screen environments or simulate multi-app widget experiences will be rejected.
Got it. Yeah I see what you mean. This rule is more about them wanting to maintain control over distribution than it is about having a custom desktop / windowing metaphor. They don’t want people to create a platform within their platform where a third-party is distributing app-like things in an end-run around the iOS App Store.
RE: Node modules. For now, it requires some prep with a laptop. You can use browserify --bare to squash all the dependencies into a file as they do here playdotjs://28816c75
Hidden? Probably more like latent. I build React apps all the times professionally and in my leisure time. I also use my iPad Pro a lot. I just don’t use my iPad Pro to make React apps, because I’ve never been aware of any feasible way to do so.
I’m in a similar boat. I desperately want to be able to develop on my iPad, but just haven’t found a good way to do it yet. The best I’ve found so far is programming a micro:bit with the scratch-like environment.
I’ll probably try this out, but what I really want is something like Max/MSP so is don’t have to type so much (although I do have a keyboard for my iPad, but it’s not something I like to type for long durations on)
Codea and Pythonista also provide XCode templates you can drop your code into to create App Store apps from your projects. Not sure about Continuous.
Apple allowing iCloud syncing for code has removed the last real source of friction I'd had using Pythonista. Now I can write a script on my iPad, then reach over and run it on my phone, then if it's cross-platform sit at my Mac and run it from there too before checking it into Github. No fuss, no bother.
I think this is one of my best app purchases ever, based on how much fun I have with it. Great to be able to read a Haskell book on my iPad and flip back and forth the Raskell to try code snippets as I read.
Pythonista is another great app purchase if you want to be able to write Python code natively on an iPad.
I’ve looked at the first two of those and I found them still too awkward due to being very text-typing heavy. Similar to play.js so I guess it mightn’t work well for me. I do have a keyboard and get by, but it’s uncomfortable for anything but shortish bursts and while I can of course use a normal keyboard, when I have one available I typically also have a laptop or desktop available so it’s easier to just use those. Like I said, I really dream of something more touch-friendly like an iPad-max/msp type language.
Still, I’ll try the ones you linked again and see. Maybe I got it wrong.
https://nodered.org might be a starting point, but it’s still awkward to use and not exactly touchscreen-friendly. Looking for someting like that or LabVIEW for the iPad myself...
Thanks, I'll check it out. All of the web-based ones I've tried so far weren't very touchscreen friendly, sadly. Many simply don't respond to touch events, or the nodes were too small for my fingers.
The issue I have is that I don't want to carry a full sized keyboard around with me and when I'm somewhere where I have one (ie at home or in the office) I also have a laptop or desktop available with much better development tools, so just use those. iPad development would be for when I'm away from these.
I do have a case keyboard and its fine for basic use (emails, HN comments, short documents, chat messages) but I've never been happy typing a lot on it and I've never been happy programming on it (I've tried various IDE's, web based tools, SSHing into a server etc and I always got frustrated).
Schools? Certainly my both my daughters school and my niece and nephews school has bet the farm on iPads, and are now looking for ways to teach programming without having to buy new hardware for all the kids. Something like this could be another way to do that.
Have you tried codesandbox.io?
It is in my view the most sophisticated online editor with live preview and a huge load of starter templates to spare you the build configuration.
It is my go-to solution for when i have an idea and just want to build it quickly anywhere.
There is experimental support to use VSCode as the editor, togglable in the options.
Is there something similar that would allow me to use one of these on iPad Pro:
- A fully featured linux desktop with Visual Studio Code and a terminal
- A sandboxed terminal with persistent storage
- A text editor and a rust compiler
- A text editor
I could always ssh into my raspberry pi while at home, which is my second best solution. But, if anyone has some ideas/solutions in mind that require even a large bit of tinkering, please tell me :)
I just picked up a new 13” iPad Pro with the hopes as using it as a travel machine. Mostly for email/writing, but also for light development. Haven’t found a solution yet. I’m in web dev land currently, so node/npm/webpack and a local http server would be needed.
I've just found a solution that works pretty nicely for me: Coda. It has an integrated SSH terminal, it has FTPS and uploads changes to files on save and it has support for many languages (don't know about rust though). It also saves your terminals and open files within each project so you can easily switch around.
Coda on iPad + Raspberry Pi (or an old Mac mini) make a pretty nice dev environment.
If you are more of a VIM guy, something like Terminus works well too.
Here's how I do this: https://stephendotz.com/posts/pocket-dev/ Originally I set it up on my iPhone, but now I use my iPad Pro "13 w/ the keyboard cover and it's really pleasant. I've written a ton of code on it. Front-end work is a little bit less fun because there aren't any browsers with dev tools for it.
nice setup!
I think I would go for a remote server instead of a local laptop in case I would opt for SSH’ing from the ipad. Thanks for suggesting Mosh !
Cool would be if this app had some basic git(hub) support - currently seems only to support storing files locally or sharing to anything with a registered Sharing Extension (not aware of app that registers github sharing extension)
I am incredibly excited for this. As a developer, all of my mobile devices excel at doing almost everything except....development. One step closer to a realized dream.
The Tab s4 and s5e both have DeX mode on screen and can be proto-laptops. Also there exist lapdock implementions by favorite being the HP Lapdock which even supports wireless pairing (Although DeX still needs to enable wireless projection mode)