[flohofwoe]

The text piping is just one small part and not the most important, instead its about sharing and processing any type of data with small tools that can be combined like lego blocks (and if there isn't the right lego block for a problem you can build your own). The UNIX shell is just one very primitive implementation of that idea (and yet it's still much more powerful than anything we have on iOS or Android).

In the "mobile app ecosystem", each application is more or less an island. It would be possible to achieve something similar on iOS/Android devices, but the entire "value proposition" of walled garden ecosystems isn't compatibel with this idea of open and creative computing. One prerequisite is that I actually own my device and can do anything I want with it, without the platform owner getting in the way.

[simonh]

On iOS now we have all the same interchange mechanisms between applications we have on desktop. Decent file management, rich content cut-and-paste, side-by-side applications. Share sheets are great.

The main limitation is the interaction model, and that's just down the the mechanics of touch interfaces. Firstly fingers are imprecise big fat squishy blobs. Secondly the tablet form factor doesn't afford a large physical keyboard. These are the impediments and they're just facts of the form factor. the new multi-tasking interface in iPadOS looks like a great step forward, but it's always an issue.