
I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode - moconnor
http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad
======
raganwald

      One fateful day, VMWare and OS/X conspired to trash my
      shared filesystem, losing several days of uncommitted
      code in the process.
    

Several days of uncommitted code? We need to have a heart to heart talk about
your process.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
Insightful, and so close to a haiku as well...

Here's an attempt:

    
    
      Mac lost my data
      Many days of work gone
      Cloud to the rescue

~~~
Legion

      It's the poor craftsman
      Who points the blame at his tools
      Y U NO COMMIT?

~~~
ajross
winner

------
scott_s
For anyone who spends their day (or most of some days) in a terminal connected
to a remote server, I can't recommend using GNU Screen enough (brief tutorial:
<http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/3/9/16838/14935>).

I've worked almost exclusively on remote servers, using the command line and
vim, for about eight years now. It's only been in the past year that I started
using Screen, and I feel stupid for not using it sooner.

~~~
srik
Screen is great. Though not it's fault, the only downside is that it cant
persist through a machine restart.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Nope, but you _can_ script both screen and tmux, and have it automatically
start a screen session for you when you login.

I've got a little bash script for my VM that launches tmux, and starts a
development web server in one of the windows, and tailing logs in another, and
then dumps me into my project directory.

I also found tmux much, MUCH easier to script than screen.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Any good resources you'd recommend for scripting tmux?

~~~
pavel_lishin
I just googled around, read the man page, and eventually came up with
[https://github.com/pavellishin/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/vodk...](https://github.com/pavellishin/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/vodka-
netomat-tmux.sh)

------
agentultra
This has to be the most ergonomically inefficient set-up ever!

I also cannot fathom how to work with < 2 big monitors (> 21" at least). And a
tiling window manager. And a decent mechanical keyboard... ok ok..

Interesting setup. I'd be interested in knowing how it works out in the long
term.

~~~
scottschulthess
Having multiple monitors isn't good eronomically IMO. I always prefer what I'm
working on to be on direct center, and I don't really see the point of having
other stuff that isn't direct center. I prefer to alt-tab.

~~~
agentultra
I have a large monitor on an arm in the center flanked by monitors to either
side. My main monitor just has a full-screen emacs. The other monitors are for
peripheral information such as browsers, irc sessions, email, etc.

It's great for keeping API docs open while I'm working without leaving my
editor.

Having the center monitor on an arm just lets me adjust it's height when I
move between leaning forward, slouching, or sitting straight, standing, etc.

A single monitor is limiting as it requires more context switches as I swap
out windows in my viewing area. It's much nicer to just leave all the
important windows open in a nice grid that spans multiple displays.

~~~
rapind
I love 3 monitor setups, with the big one in the middle and two cheap small
ones on either side. All my input (editing, browsing, etc.) happens in the big
fancy middle window. Test logs on the left, and server logs on the right.

The only time I use the side monitors for anything else is if I'm following
along with a screencast.

------
awolf
There are a lot of comments here from people acting as if not having two 24"
monitors and a full mechanical keyboard would drastically diminish their
productivity. This year I spent 4 months out of the country with only my 15"
laptop while still working 8 hour days. I was surprised to find no change at
all in how long it took to get shit done. I think we tend to kid ourselves
about how much of a difference expensive equipment makes.

~~~
moconnor
Yes, this is something I wanted to say and somehow didn't: one personal take-
away from the experience for me has been that programming, ultimately, is
thinking.

All the technology in the world doesn't make me think faster. The most I can
ask from it is that it gets out of my way and lets me search, explore and
express myself efficiently.

~~~
awolf
Exactly. A subtle change to our workflows where we force ourselves to think
about the problem for a minimum of ten minutes prior to coding will provide
more benefit than any piece of equipment ever could.

Not as sexy as a new cinema display though.

------
idspispopd
It's interesting to see that other people are noticing how poor the google web
experience has become on iOS. It seems especially deliberate when I note that
android & chrome use webkit.

I've even swapped the default search engine to bing because it provides a
better layout, especially so for image searching which in my view is broken on
iOS.

This from the company that just released tools to aid the transition to mobile
web.

(and yes, I'm aware that they hate each other, but why should I be punished?
reminds me of the MS from yesteryear.)

Also: there is general feedback that google's optional services are generally
quite good, which makes it curious that the originally very good google
search/image search was replaced with versions that aren't up to scratch.

~~~
Kylekramer
Anyone who thinks Google Docs is better on Android due to anti-Apple
conspiracy clearly has never used Google Docs on Android.

Also, outside of Google Docs, Google has first rate support for iOS on the
web. Gmail, Voice, Reader, everything runs brilliantly on iOS. In fact,
usually better than Android, as they clearly see web as their primary in to
iOS compared to Android (example: Voice is the snazzy HTML5 newness on iOS,
while Android has the spartan 1995 grad student webpage styling).

~~~
rhubarbquid
I wouldn't call the mobile support in Reader "frist rate". Some of the UI
elements (especially the "mark as read", "email", etc. links at the bottom of
each post) are too small, I constantly expand the next post when trying to
email one. A small detail, but one that drives me crazy.

------
wes-exp
Imagine an "iPad Pro" that had similar battery life and even an integrated
keyboard. In addition to supporting the SSH workflow, it can run traditional
GUI applications if you really need them.

You don't have to wait: it's called the MacBook Air.

~~~
stock_toaster
I _really_ like the 13" Air form factor, but the high resolution and smaller
physical size results in fonts that are a bit too small for my eyes these
days. So, I stick with my couple-gen-back 15" with matte finish and 1440x900.

~~~
wes-exp
The new full-screen capabilities in Lion can help with reading on small
screens (in fact I think that's why they added it). Combined with bumping up
the font size in applications, it can be quite readable.

~~~
stock_toaster
terminal.app is one of the worst offenders, possibly because I like a good
monospace font for it (monaco-with antialias disabled). When adjusting the
size away from the 'good default' of 11pt, it looks awful.

Combined with that, bumping up the size in every single app lowers the value
proposition _for me_ , especially given the expense of the laptop itself.

I practically live inside my laptop, use it far too much of the day, and
anything that makes my eyes hurt _more_ or requires more effort to use instead
of less, I consider less than ideal.

Full screen (which I quite enjoy by the way) helps neither or those things.

------
nileshk
The last time I tried to use SSH under iOS with the Apple bluetooth keyboard
(trying different SSH apps including iSSH and TouchTerm) I found that I could
not comfortably use Emacs due to various key combinations not being
transmitted (I guess Vim isn't as much of a problem). One of the SSH app
developers said that they were not able to trap certain keystrokes that were
iOS keyboard shortcuts. Looks like this may still be an issue, as moconnor
says this:

> Ctrl-X is my screen’s ‘hotkey’; it defaults to Ctrl-A but on a wireless
> keyboard that leaves unicode characters in the terminal - I assume this is
> related to Apple’s support for some common Emacs key bindings in iOS.

Is the situation any better now? Any workarounds to make this work better
(e.g. configure the shell on the remote end)? How is this on Android?

I was trying this on an iPhone, but I'd imagine it handles bluetooth keyboards
the same as the iPad.

Another issue I had was latency of the cellular connection (AT&T 3G); there
was a very noticeable delay between keystrokes and the server receiving them
and transmitting back. I imagine if you're on wifi most of the time this isn't
as much of a problem, though. Or maybe you just get used to the latency.

~~~
rsl7
In my experience, Prompt is much better app for straightforward terminal use
than iSSH. It handles meta keys very well includig the hardware ESC key on the
wireless keyboard that iSSH could not, last time I tried it.

~~~
nileshk
Are there any tricks to getting Prompt working correctly? Ctrl seems to work
good, at least the keys I tried (Ctrl-A/E/N/P/K/T). When connecting to a Linux
box, I can get some of meta keys to kinda work, but most of them do unexpected
things. When connecting to an OS X box, option just spits out special
characters. Prompt doesn't appear to have any configuration option for what
type of terminal emulation, so I guess my only options are to configure the
shell I am connecting to.

I just tried the latest versions of both Prompt and iSSH on iOS 5 on an iPhone
3GS. Prompt is at least a big improvement over iSSH in this area, but, unless
I can figure out how to get it to work better, it is definitely not something
I'd be comfortably using for Emacs.

------
kayoone
You could actually do the same thing WITH a Macbook Air/Pro. The beauty of a
cloud linux instance + gnu screen isnt limited to the ipad and so you could
still have a bigger screen and the possibility to go back to GUI apps if you
need them. I like this for travelling on the go, but spending my normal
workday in 1024 resolution ? Naaa.

~~~
moconnor
This is true, but I'd be sacrificing the silence, the portability and the
battery life. And the hipster factor, I guess.

102x768 isn't for everyone, but in text-mode it's all the same. I've no idea
how many hours I've spent on a huge high-res monitor staring at a relatively
tiny terminal window surrounded by a pretty desktop picture.

~~~
swombat
The battery life of a Macbook Air is pretty damn good. You can get a good 6+
hours of work out of them before needing to plug in. Not quite iPad-scale, but
close enough in many cases. Also, the iPad does tend to run out of battery a
bit more quickly when using 3G and bluetooth heavily, I believe...

~~~
moconnor
For me, 6 hours is the difference between needing to take a charger to work
and never thinking about it. If I'm going to take a charger, I might as well
have 1 hour battery life.

I didn't buy the 3G version, but I do use bluetooth for the keyboard all day
and still get around 9 hours out of it.

------
mscrivo
If this guys thinks having a single 10" screen with no ability to switch
between tasks easily and quickly is the wave of the future for developers, I
don't want any part of that future.

You can pry my dual 24" monitors + high performance desktop from cold dead
body.

~~~
moconnor
I don't think it's the future for developers, I think it's the future for
pretty much everybody else though.

I plug the iPad into large monitors sometimes. When an iPad with double the
resolution comes out, this won't seem nearly so silly.

~~~
ricardobeat
The iPad 2 can output FullHD resolution, the app just needs to support it.

------
jwallaceparker
It looks like the goal of the swap was to have a spartan, lightweight, cool
(temperature) workspace.

It seems like a MacBook Air accomplishes this better than iPad, stand and
keyboard.

The only difference I can grok from the article is that the MacBook Air is
somehow more fragile. But is it?

~~~
peng
The title is a bit disingenuous. Before clicking through, I was wondering how
he managed to maintain his productivity level with a touchscreen keyboard. I'm
disappointed he's using external hardware, because otherwise I'd love to try a
similar setup.

------
drivingmenuts
What's the solution for when "the cloud" loses your files and the ToS says "so
sorry, we'll try harder next time - here's next month's bill"?

When I keep my files locally, the only person I have to blame for losing them
is myself. Out in "the cloud", there's quite literally nothing that can be
done to recover my data.

~~~
moconnor
Linode offer monthly backups for $5. All my real work is pushed to the office
repository. All my personal projects are done in a Dropbox folder.

I'm pretty confident the data will be ok this time.

~~~
njharman
Backups with same vender aren't backups.

------
cmwright
Incredible that we seem to be moving back to powerful mainframe computers in a
timesharing system. A 40 year cycle?

~~~
markkanof
It is a bit better than that though because you can have a complete server
environment to yourself, and don't have to deal with timesharing.

~~~
p0ckets
Unless you shell out for a dedicated server, you are sharing the physical
machine with other people. The cpu is probably scheduled according to the size
of the instance you bought, but you might get the whole thing if your
neighbors aren't running anything.

------
RexRollman
I am still amazed that Apple hasn't come up with a shortcut for app switching
when using bluetooth keyboards.

By the way, Moconnor, have you given Panic's Prompt a try?

~~~
ConstantineXVI
They don't really need to come up with one as much as just implement it. Gold
standard's always been [Alt|Clover]-Tab; or even F3 (Apple's mapping for
Exposé/Mission Control, even marked as such). I understand there's no easy way
to dismiss the on-screen keyboard when you're using a hard keyboard either.

~~~
moconnor
The on screen keyboard vanishes when a Bluetooth one is connected; the eject
button toggles it in and out again.

~~~
ConstantineXVI
I'm guessing this changed in iOS 5 then (AFAIK; it didn't in iOS 4). I stand
corrected.

------
jrockway
$800 gets you a pretty nice laptop. I don't see the advantage of this approach
at all.

~~~
orthecreedence
$800 gets you a LOT more than an iPad. I can see the advantage of working in
the cloud, but working off of an iPad to smells of "hey! hey everyone!! look
at me! look what I'm doing!" Not to mention there is now a monthly fee to
program. That's not economical.

~~~
pseudonym
Just to toss this out here, but $20/mo for a linode, is not a huge investment,
and it's something that I have even without doing everything "in the cloud".
It's handy for those quick file transfers, a small portfolio site, and since
you have root access, you can quickly set up or take down any odd services
without the hassle of finding a distinct hosting service (Mumble, Mercurial,
Subversion, or what have you).

But that's just my two cents.

~~~
Buzzzz
How does the cost of light usages like this compares to aws?

~~~
pseudonym
To be honest, I couldn't tell you-- for the amount of usage that I have on it,
it's a flat $20/mo, and I believe I have something like 20G of HD space and
200G of bandwidth, which I've never come close to using up (it's amazing how
small your OS is when you're _not_ running a gui).

The _really_ nice thing, imo, is the fact that you can pay a couple bucks per
month piecemeal to increase any one stat of the machine as you need it.

------
deanproxy
The lack of ability to look at documentation/stackoverflow/code examples in a
browser while simultaneously coding out said example and making the changes I
need would severely limit my productivity. "Just copy and paste!" you may
say... Sure, that'll work. Only, wait, I forgot what that one line meant, is
it needed? What did they say about changing this piece of code that was
"really important?" Crap, back to the browser. Let's switch apps again. Crap,
the page in the browser is having to reload because I had too many tabs open
and memory got low, now I have to wait for it to reload. Where was I on the
page? Cause when it reloaded the page, it put me back at the top. Wait, that
wasn't the tab I wanted, it's that other tab. Great! It has to reload now too!

I typically work with a single external monitor connected to my Macbook and
use the Macbook for holding my mail client, chat and a browser while my
Terminal's and IDE are on the external monitor. This works best for me.

Now that spaces and expose are so tied together, working with even just one
screen is much nicer. I have toyed with the idea of just using a single
external monitor and use spaces extensively. Just a swipe and I'm at a new
space. This is much faster and nicer than changing apps on iOS.

I think it's a neat trial idea, but for long term productivity, it certainly
is more of a "hipster factor" than useful.

------
rapind
Very interesting. Did you ever consider the same setup but using a Chromebook?
I've been thinking about doing that for a while now (I'm on an MBP currently).
<http://www.google.com/chromebook/>

------
powerslave12r
I think the way of the future is a smaller powerful notebook, like a Thinkpad
X220, and then using larger monitors and whatever cloud service you want.

------
navs
I actually attempted the same thing once but gave up after a day. I borrowed
the iPad from work (clients absolutely love demos on this thing) and used iSSH
to connect to my netbook running ubuntu.

First, I tried to create a simple mobile website with vim. I'm not a hardcore
vim user so the frustration I felt using it on the iPad were mostly due to my
level of inexperience with vim. Additionally, I didn't have an external
keyboard. Using the software keyboard with my neck hunched forward gave me
some serious cramps.

The second activity was writing a document. I used markdown and pandoc to
create an rtf. googlecl for uploading to the google cloud.

Small screens bug some people but after using a 15" macbook pro and a 10"
netbook, it normally doesn't bother me. In this case, using a software
keyboard meant I had even less screen real estate which did bother me.

Overall, it was workable. If I ever took vacations, I could see myself taking
an iPad (with keyboard) instead of a regular laptop and doing some emergency
bug fixing but I wouldn't choose it over my netbook.

~~~
moconnor
I feel your pain, I can't imagine doing _any_ serious text-related work on the
iPad without an external keyboard. As you say, alone the typing position is
horrendous.

------
namank
What you have done here is an HCI study. On yourself.

You could formalize this with related models and write a paper on it if you
wanted.

~~~
mitjak
The problem is, IMO, that it is a very narrow use case with a very specific
user base that is willing to be very very flexible with this particular user
interface (apps timing out when backgrounded, swiping instead of switching via
Command+Tab, the low viewing angle etc). It is an interesting preview of what
a 'cloud terminal' future could look like but I can't help wondering if the
vast majority of viewers on HN are cringing at the thought of just how many
backwards steps in UI evolution they would have to take from the familiar
desktop and laptop PCs.

~~~
namank
Well, yes. But Contextual Design, by definition means building something for a
specific user.

As you say, its a first step towards the the pc-free, cloud-enabled, dev
environment. The 'cringe' factor will always be there with new things!

------
6ren
Isn't the latency of vim on a remote server distracting? Or is your ping low
enough to not be noticeable?

I've thought about this kind of setup, but I think I'd need vim to be running
locally (but working on files from a remote filesystem - vim can do this).

~~~
anjc
Can you or somebody expand on that last bit...run vim locally on remote files?
How? How does this improve lag? Any downsides to it? This would save me so
much bother.

~~~
6ren
I haven't done it in ages, but a quick google shows gives an example (BTW
google beats vim :help if you don't know the command name)
[http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Edit_remote_files_locally_via_SCP/...](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Edit_remote_files_locally_via_SCP/RCP/FTP)

    
    
       vim scp://konimi@vim.org//var/www/html/rtc_functions.php
    

i.e. you just start vim with the address preceded by the protocol name (here
it's _scp_ , but also works for _ftp_ and _rcp_ ). The "konimi@" is the syntax
for username. You might need to set up SSH passwords for scp on the remote
(that's a whole other thing to research)

~~~
anjc
Thanks a million

------
Ogre
This is partly a testament to what a great app iSSH is. I haven't used it as a
daily work environment, but I've gotten some pretty great things done with it,
even the iPhone version. My favorite was sitting in a crappy motel room with
barely Edge, and still managing to build a GPX converter (not build as in
write, build as in download and compile), convert some map routes to a format
I needed for another phone app, and get them on my website where I could then
get the app that needed them to download them.

It was not fast, and I wouldn't want to do it all the time, but it worked, and
iSSH made it about as painless as I can imagine that process being.

~~~
moconnor
This is really true, although depending entirely on a low-price, commercial
app makes me uneasy.

I'd be happier if I knew iSSH made enough to support a small company.

I'd be happiest with an open source version I could contribute to.

~~~
spicyj
Panic's Prompt ([http://www.panic.com/blog/2011/04/introducing-prompt-ssh-
for...](http://www.panic.com/blog/2011/04/introducing-prompt-ssh-for-ios/))
probably doesn't make them enough to support their company, but they've been
around for a long time and I don't expect they'll go anywhere. I'm not sure
whether it supports 256 colors.

~~~
conradev
The fact that Prompt alone cannot earn enough to support all of Panic has
nothing to do with the original point. The point is that Panic, Inc. has
quality full-time developers that go to work every day. They make great
software, and they support it vigorously (see <http://twitter.com/panic>).
iSSH does not have this.

Also, I personally like Prompt better in terms of UX. Its quick access menu is
always available right above the keyboard, you know, near your fingers when
you are typing. Have you ever tried to move the cursor position in iSSH on an
iPhone?

------
jiggy2011
Ouch, each to his own but not for me!

Combination of tiny screen , having to reach out and touch the screen rather
than just put a hand on the mouse and the latency involved in using a remote
machine would make this a nightmare for me!

Judging by the photo of the setup on the desk I would assume you have to lean
quite far forward in order to see the screen (unless you have very good
eyesight) and I have enough backpain as it is.

Using any graphical tools at all (unless there is an ipad version) must be a
major pain on this setup!

I find working on a laptop bad enough but when I really need to be portable
and can't take my dual monitors with me the combination of internet hosted
source control + IMAP email + dropbox means that I can grab my laptop and just
walk out the door without worrying about where my files are so I'm not really
sure what advantages you get from this setup.

Of course if your happy with your setup then that's totally cool, what worries
me more is if the desktop market dissapears and it becomes necessary for
everyone to use a setup like this, it would feel like a _massive_ step
backwards to me. I'm just too used to being able to lie back on my chair, have
my keyboard within easy reach and clearly see everything I need to see right
in front of me in big readable text.

As an aside I also don't really like widescreen monitors for doing work ,
especially programming as vertical screen estate is much more useful than
horizontal when trying to look at allot of code and figure out where the bug
is. But it seems almost impossible now to get a large square monitor that
doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

~~~
moconnor
At work we have large widescreen dell monitors that can be rotated into a
portrait mode, you might like those.

------
jsight
> Maybe it works better on an Android - no, wait, that’d be anti-competitive
> behavior and Google would never do something evil, right?

I don't see how releasing a full Android version would be anti-competitive in
any meaningful sense.

Especially since the Android app and webapp support for Google Docs is
unbelievably horrible. It amazes me that something as simple as editing a
document (or simple spreadsheet) is almost completely impractical on Android
tablets.

------
TamDenholm
Anyone tried to do this as a web developer? I know theres an app or two geared
towards being a web dev environment, the one good one i found (its called
Gusto on the app store) i didnt get to test properly because it didnt support
SFTP yet (due to apple requiring some permission from the gov or something,
not technical limitation).

~~~
moconnor
I do some web development in my spare time but I think I'd _really_ miss the
developer tools in the browser if I did more client-side javascript.

There's always firefox-in-vnc, but that's a pretty awful solution.

------
dpapathanasiou
Can you really write code efficiently on such a small (9.7") screen?

~~~
Sindisil
I've written many tens of thousands of lines of C on my netbook, which has a
10.1" screen, also using Vim, so I believe it's possible.

Still, I'd really like just a _smidge_ more space, especially in the vertical.
At least 168 pixels, to be specific.

That's one advantage he has with the iPad - he can easily switch between
portrait and landscape, depending upon his needs.

I'd _love_ to be able to occasionally turn my netbook screen to portrait!

~~~
Meai
<http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/>

------
doki_pen
So Mac/VMWare/Linux failed and the solution was to move to iPad/Linode? Did
you consider just installing a Linux distro? Why do people who develop on
Linux all day _need_ OSX? I don't get it. What is the killer app? It's more
expensive and harder to use for Linux development. Is it really just because
it's prettier?

------
trebor
My first thought was, "Oh! no you didn't!"

Kudos for thinking of it. I think that it's a very viable solution for those
who don't have a great need for a graphical IDE. But as a web developer I have
to test across all major browsers, so I can't switch everything to an iPad.
(Not that I wouldn't be interested in trying it.)

------
RyanCumley
That's good stuff! I just did the business version of this post

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3186237>

I haven't attempted anything for my normal Objective-C XCode work yet on an
iPad.

Anyone out there have any hacks to do iPhone/iPad dev from the iPad?

~~~
robterrell
1\. Keep your project in a Dropbox folder or sftp site.

2\. Edit your code with one of the many Dropbox-enabled text editors. (Or use
Textastic with its sftp support.)

3\. Use Hudson's web interface to kick off an Xcode build. Configure Hudson to
send built IPAs back to you via email or TestFlight.

4\. Download and test your new build on the same device.

It sort of works, even! As long as you don't need to edit your XIB files, and
you avoid typos. I'm not switching over to it, but it wasn't as bad as I
thought it would be.

------
prg318
I find myself using SSH on my Google CR-48 netbook to develop and do work much
more than my shiny Dell XPS laptop. SSH+Linode+VIM+screen is such a great
combination as you can literally pick up exactly where you left off from any
machine with SSH access. Gotta love it.

------
zrgiu_
I dream of the day when I would be able to work completely remote. Much like
using a VNC now to connect to server and do the work. Unfortunately.. the
internet connection is not good enough for anything like that, and VNC is sub-
optimal for this kind of things.

Imagine being able to work remotely, being able to "rent" a couple of more
virtual processor when you need to compile something bigger, having as much
RAM available as you need and paying only for what you use, and most of all,
having the security that all your data is safely backed up with a 1-second
delay at most. Virtually unlimited bandwidth (again, pay for what you use), as
all the other resources. Just imagine ...

------
davidjhall
I heartily agree -- once you add a wireless keyboard to an iPad, it stops
being a toy. I use the keyboard and an iPad 1 to write my first drafts (both
locally and google docs, if need be) and with VNC, I code on my remote servers
as well.

~~~
nodata
How do you keep the iPad's screen comfortably facing you if you're not holding
it?

~~~
davidjhall
I have a protector case (Incase) which has ridges to keep it open at an angle,
landscape. Very low-tech but it keeps it at the correct angle for me. Back
when Border's were still around, I just needed keyboard and iPad (power lasts
a long time) to work on my writing at one of their tables or even their Big
Comfy Chairs(tm).

------
comm_it
Looking at the setup of the iPad on your table with the keyboard gave me neck
ache. I can't imagine what that does to you on a daily basis.

Interesting experiment, I don't think I could ever move to doing something
like that permanently.

------
casca
I'm a big fan of tmux* and vim but there's a limit to the complexity of system
that you can develop efficiently with vim. A good graphical IDE used by a
skilled operator will be more likely to generate correct, consistent code
faster.

If you're using vim and think you're developing as well and as fast as you
can, you're probably wrong.

* 17 years of screen and I've finally switched over to tmux. None of the features were sufficiently compelling for me to change, but it's so much faster

~~~
Sindisil
I respectfully disagree, or partially, anyway.

I've been developing software in Vim, Netbeans, and Visual Studio (with about
a year or so of Eclipse thrown in for good measure).

I've worked on projects in all three ranging from tiny 1kloc one-offs to
several million line systems, using C, C++, Java, Bash, and a smattering of
Perl and Python.

For Java and C++ code bases beyond a few thousand lines, I certainly agree
that language aware tools are invaluable. It's sad that C++'s nature makes
such tools so difficult to build. Going from Netbeans/Java to Netbeans or VS
C++ is like going back in time - not quite laser scalpel to flint knife, but
sometimes it feels like it!

Fortunately, I spend the bulk of my time in C, where I find myself at _least_
as effective in Vim as in either Netbeans or VS. Granted, I obviously do use a
few additional tools - primarily ctags and make.

If vim only had fully language aware navigation and search, I think I'd be
just as effective in it as in any IDE. Exuberant ctags comes close, but just
isn't quite there, and cscope is just too clumsy and slow.

~~~
moconnor
For code navigation / completion, you could try eclim / clang_complete.

~~~
Sindisil
Yup, it's at the top of my pile of things to try when I need to take a break.

Though there's something that feels ... _wrong_ with eclim in particular. Not
that it'll stop me from using it if it works well!

------
reustle
I would do this, except for most of the day hook up the iPad to a 24" monitor
with the HDMI cable. The only roadblock I see is not having chrome inspector.

------
pdenya
I'm surprised he didn't think it was worth going for a 3G ipad. I spend a
decent amount of time working outside of my office on my laptop with a local
environment. Impossible with this setup and no 3G. Maybe there's a tethering
plan on his iphone to account for that.

Either way, this setup would be significantly less painful using a MBP to
connect to linode instead of an ipad.

------
SoftwareMaven
I'm in the process of deciding on a laptop upgrade. I can't decide between an
11" MacBook Air or a 15" MacBook Pro. If I could get a nice Thunderbolt 3D
accelerator, the Air would win hands-down.

I'm really close to moving to remote work for almost everything development
related, but I photoshop enough to worry about the Air being underpowered. Any
good cloud answers for that?

~~~
vaughan
Thunderbolt 3D accelerator will be out early next year. ViDock G4 Micro
([http://www.facebook.com/VillageViDock?sk=app_202980683107053...](http://www.facebook.com/VillageViDock?sk=app_202980683107053&app_data=69f57681-2b83-45a5-b695-1ba5cd87ff48:0))

------
bergie
Sounds very interesting. I think the major downside would be that you can't
really do any development while offline. I've done some of my most productive
programming during flights and train rides, so that would be a downside for
me.

Maybe Android could give a little more of the "local productivity" option?

~~~
randomdata
While I haven't replaced my laptop, I also do some coding on my iPad under
certain circumstances. Instead of using an editor over SSH, I purchased
Textastic. It supports SFTP and a host of other protocols, allowing you to
edit offline and then sync with the remote host when connectivity is
available. I'm pretty happy with that setup.

[1] <http://www.textasticapp.com/>

------
moonboots
For anyone still using gnu screen, tmux.

~~~
vidarh
Looked at it; didn't see any compelling reasons to switch; went back to
screen.

Screen is for the most part "good enough" that any replacement that aims to
supplant it completely needs to either be vastly and obviously superior or
enough of a drop in replacement that it doesn't require any effort to switch
(I'm most definitively not investing time updating config files or changing
key presses unless the improvements are dramatic).

As far as I can see, while tmux might be "better" in some nebulous way, the
value proposition is way to weak to invest time in switching for me.

~~~
revscat
_shrug_ Maybe. It's all about what's valuable to you.

I switched to tmux because it is better maintained and it has better screen
splitting functionality. I also mapped screens commands over to tmux, so the
switch was basically painless. Took all of 15 minutes.

If you're cool with screen, you're cool with screen. No worries.

~~~
vidarh
The maintenance thing means nothing to me, since I basically don't need any
changes unless a new version of my Linux distro flavor of the day breaks it.
There's been nothing new in Screen in the last 10+ years I've cared about.

And I don't use the screen splitting at all - I use splitting a lot in emacs,
but never in the terminal, so that's basically a non-feature for me.

I want to create, remove and switch between windows, and have a status bar
showing their names. That is all.

I guess these are the reasons I've never seen the point in switching.

------
bbwharris
I tried doing this, but it felt like I wanted to make this setup happen. It
just wasn't there for me. The idea is elegant and simple, but the reality is
that having a laptop is just more efficient. One day, this might be the
nomadic developers toolbox.

------
jebblue
If you're going to try something like this, you couldn't ask for a better VPS
provider than Linode. I think the choice of VPS provider is at least as
important as the choice of client access tools.

------
tomkinstinch
I tried to code on an iPad, but just couldn't get used to it. I'm glad it is
working for you.

It should be interesting when there are versatile graphical programming
languages for touch devices (LabVIEW, etc.).

~~~
william42
To be fair, he attached a keyboard to it and worked mostly through ssh.

------
anthonyb
> The iPhone keyboard is somewhat painful to use, but for rm -rf
> /tmp/build-2011-* it suffices.

Is it just me, or does the thought of typing rm -rf on an iPhone keyboard
sound a little... dangerous?

------
mbq
In other words, yet another frustrated Mac user converted to Linux.

~~~
moconnor
I used Linux for 10 years before my first MacBook, so it was really more of a
return than a conversion.

------
deepGem
On a rather different note, a very comfortable setup can be achieved. Setup a
neat iPad mount on a wall with a comfortable viewing distance and say goodbye
to neck strain :).

------
pavel_lishin
> Frustrated by the inconsistent usage of ctrl/alt/option/arrow keys to jump
> words and screens and lines,

I'd really like to know what editor he was using.

~~~
moconnor
I tried Textmate. But I was also using a web browser, an email client, a
terminal, a VM running Linux with gnome-terminal and a few other linux-only
utilities, including our product.

I don't recall exactly what was inconsistent with what, but the overall effect
was to make me unhappy.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I got used to it, especially with a little help in .inputrc:
<https://github.com/pavellishin/dotfiles/blob/master/.inputrc>

But moot point, now :)

------
bitwize
Hey, 1024x768, 8bpp is how I rolled back in 1995 rocking my first Linux box.
Thanks for bringing that feeling of freedom back to my memory.

------
jamesu
Sounds great if you do work which can be done in the terminal or a slow
256-color vnc session. Otherwise i'll be sticking with my Macbook.

------
sktrdie
I don't see the difference compared to owning a MacBook Air. Is it that the
screen and keyboard are separated?

~~~
orthecreedence
The screen and the keyboard are separate, the Macbook Air isn't _completely_
useless, and the Macbook Air can develop locally when, Jah forbid, the
internet goes out or you have to work on a train or something. A Macbook Air
can also, as far as I know, also work in the cloud perfectly well.

------
VikingCoder
Do other people have this much trouble with Google Docs? I sure don't, and I
consider myself a heavy user.

------
dinedal
iSSH maps either alt to option or control to option, how do you have it set up
to do both?

Prompt lets you use the control key for control, but the alt key is borked on
apple's wireless keyboard.

Is there a set up with both these keys working at the same time, preferably on
the keys labeled as such?

------
rayhano
If only a viable version of Office could be found for the iPad

------
noveltyaccount
> More recently I’ve been scanning mails over IMAP with a python script
> instead.

Natch.

------
suivix
You can also use SSH + screen with your MacBook... that's what I do with my
MacBook Air since it's much more pleasant to deal with than the company IBM
laptop.

------
billpatrianakos
I can't deny that this is a cool setup but I can't see it being useful for
long. I personally need to see multiples windows simultaneously as I work.
Swiping over can't cut it for very long. But good for you, man. To each his
own I suppose.

~~~
moconnor
I must confess, I did wonder about adding a second iPad for browsing
documentation, or maybe one of the new kindles...

I went through a phase of using multiple monitors all the time. After a year
or so I came to the conclusion that alt-tab is quicker and easier than looking
at another physical screen.

Swiping isn't; I wish alt-tab worked in iOS. Still, it's close and it stops me
checking my mail too often.

~~~
Splines
I think this is one of the places where Win8's tablet interface will gain
fans. I've seen the developer preview and being able to snap windows to the
side and get a "mini mode" (or whatever it's called) is really cool.

~~~
moconnor
This. I'm sure a "mini mode" will be a part of every tablet interface in a
couple of years' time.

------
diamondhead
I put my throughout development environment on my linode for couple of years
and think that it's a good for availability.

As an example, I developed MultiplayerChess.com is on my Linode server. I
don't have an IPhone or IPad yet but I see that it's great to access a full
utilized development environment from anywhere...

Let's turn this topic to a usesthis.com for CLI lovers.

CLI apps that I use are tmux (In addition to the previous comments not
recommending Screen, I highly recommend Tmux), Emacs, VIM (I use Emacs as an
IRC and Twitter client, an IDE and a self-organizer _, VIM as a file editor),
newsbeuter for RSS and links for browsing. My choice of distribution is Arch
Linux.

_ if you wonder about my Emacs configuration, it's in my Github;
github.com/azer/emacsfiles

------
drivebyacct2
Random observation: Who uses an iPad + "the Cloud" + vim, and rips low quality
DVDs?

~~~
moconnor
A UK expat who can't (legally) get UK series like Outnumbered digitally, yet
still wants to take them with him on his iPad.

~~~
smallegan
Even if you own the dvd I think it would be faster/easier to get a "backup"
copy via torrent.

------
ypcxz
Sorry man, but I like to code from my sofa. I also have no problem keeping my
Snow Leopard running perfectly. iPad is just way too limited and you will
discover that very soon.

~~~
ypcxz
Oh, just now I noticed all the affiliate links in your post. Yep, we're on the
same page now. Keep going!

------
zyfo
I use a Chromebook and its crosh to ssh into a Linode instance with tmux for
web development. Works like a charm, apart from the lack of UTF-8 in chrosh.

------
borism
what is VGA adapter used for?

------
dramaticus3
OMG computers

------
prolepunk
Why can't just install linux on his macboc and sync everything using
ssh/rsync/git without being such a hipster.

