
iPad Pro 10.5 for Software Development - rvbd
http://www.codingepiphany.com/2017/07/19/ipad-pro-10-5-for-software-development/
======
Rjevski
I've tried to use an iPad for Python web development - it's usable for a Vim
person since they'd be using the keyboard all day, but for me I missed Sublime
too much. Ended up getting a Macbook and the iPad is now collecting dust.

Also task switching between your editor (which was Vim inside an SSH terminal
in my case) and Safari to see the end result was way too slow, and you
constantly need to take your fingers off the keyboard to interact with the
touchscreen.

Related: [http://yieldthought.com/post/31857050698/ipad-
linode-1-year-...](http://yieldthought.com/post/31857050698/ipad-
linode-1-year-later)

~~~
haikuginger
For external keyboards, Cmd-Tab works on the iPad to switch applications. In
addition, most apps support a subset of standard keyboard shortcuts - if you
hold Cmd down, it'll throw up a list on screen.

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decasteve
I worked off of an iPad Pro 12.9 (with keyboard cover) when I was remote for a
few months. It was ok. What made it possible for me was Panic Inc's Coda,
Transmit, and Prompt apps.

The portability of it and battery life were great. There's also a certain
intimacy in working with a touch device. But there's a cumbersomeness to it
when coming from a keyboard-centric background.

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bergie
I had a pretty similar setup with a Pixel C for the last year:

[http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-
android-2017/](http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android-2017/)

The portability and battery life were great, and since Android has the Termux
app available, I could also do vim/git/node.js locally.

Unfortunately I had to give the tablet back when I switched jobs earlier this
year. The iPad Pro looks pretty appealing, especially now that there is a Mosh
app (Blink Shell), meaning that the SSH connections won't cut out after two
minutes of being out of the app.

~~~
mozartoz
I have transitioned to an environment where I only use a web browser, a
terminal and an Emacs instance.

I realise the advantage one of the huge advantages of this approach is that
you have so few dependencies even Android or iOS can be OK.

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skizm
I'm curious what device the author prefers, for software development: iPad Pro
or the surface. Also, the conclusion is that "it’s quite possible" to use the
iPad Pro, but that isn't necessarily an endorsement.

I only ask because I've been toying with the idea of buying a surface / iPad
Pro.

~~~
hari_seldon_
I have a 2015 15-inch retina macbook pro and a surface pro 4. Ever since
Windows 10 added a native ubuntu bash shell to its OS, I have preferred using
the surface for all of my development (some web stuff where I ssh into other
boxes and some python number crunching done locally). A big factor is that the
surface pro 4's screen looks a lot better than my retina macbook pro because
it is more dense and has a higher resolution. A few years ago I would not have
believed the stuff I am writing in this comment, but here we are!

~~~
fhood
You do most of your coding without an external monitor?

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mark_l_watson
I do most of my writing and research on an iPad Pro, but not much coding -
just little things while traveling. I like Raskell for Haskell and Pythonista.
I also use Prompt for SSH.

~~~
eggy
Raskell and Pythonista are great.

I also use Continuous [1] for F# dev. Great IDE experience, and being able to
play around with apps right on the iPad Pro (2016 model).

    
    
      [1]  http://continuous.codes/

~~~
mark_l_watson
Thank you. This looks interesting. I don't use C# or F#, but F# has been on my
to-leaern list for a long time.

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rocky1138
> "This makes the Surface Pro 4 a poor choice for remote work..."

and

> "Having a test or staging server is mandatory so that we can test our codes
> that we wrote on the iPad."

are not congruous.

~~~
the_gastropod
Why? You can get iPads with cell service, allowing you to connect to a
test/staging server without having access to power. I use a full blown MacBook
Pro at work, and _still_ connect to a powerful EC2 box running tmux/vim/etc
for development.

~~~
rocky1138
My laptop has had cell service for over 5 years thanks to USB internet stick.

~~~
the_gastropod
Right. But the author's point was about battery life. Not that an iPad is
unique in having cellular service.

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settsu
I'm curious how the smaller screen affects productivity. I've had the primary
responsibility for building applications with associated web services and
tackling that on a 15" Retina Macbook Pro was, while possible, hardly ideal
and certainly not what I would call "enjoyable". It was by temporary necessity
and it was a relief having a large external monitor attached. Jumping between
applications gets old pretty fast and turns what would otherwise be a smooth
flow from one part of a task to another into nearly a full context switch.

As an aside, when I see "simply", "of course", or "just" (or, for example,
hear it in a presentation) I get concerned since those are abstracts of highly
variable possibilities that could otherwise be interpreted as "your mileage
may vary". Ergo, the relevance could drop off precipitously, leaving little
more than a passing anecdote.

That's not meant as a jab at the author as I appreciate them outlining their
experience as it provides useful guidance. (And I'm probably over-analyzing
it...)

~~~
jeppebemad
I've noticed that it's easier for me to get to a state of flow on smaller
screens vs big or multiple screens. The tabbing between applications (e.g. IDE
and browser) doesn't tire me either. It's like the simple keystrokes for
tabbing between applications are far less intrusive than having to turn my
head, search, and regain focus. To me that makes sense.

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cm2187
The screen real estate alone should be a good reason not to do that. I gather
most people do js programming on a tablet. I would still need three windows
side by side: the IDE, the UI rendered in a browser, and stackoverflow or some
documentation. Having to switch all the time must be tiring.

~~~
hartator
You can have 2 apps at the same time, I beleive. Split in the middle by iOS.

I still dream about an iPad that run macOS. :)

~~~
sigjuice
Apple will not make Macs forever. A macOS-ARM VM that runs on iOS is
plausible. There is certainly precedent for this sort of thing (Classic on
PowerPC Macs, Rosetta on Intel Macs). We might even have Homebrew ARM :p

~~~
mark_l_watson
re: "Apple will not make Macs forever": you may be right, but I would guess
that the Mac product line will be profitable enough to last a long time. That
said, I now only use my Mac while coding, and all other reading, research, and
writing is done on one of my iOS devices.

What I want is a powerful phone that air docs to screens, keyboards, etc. as
needed. I use Dropbox, iDrive, Google Drive, and OneDrive - I like them all
(especially for multiple backup targets) but I would really one phone-like
device with sharable peripherals both at home and in public places.

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marcc
I'd love to find a good iPad style dev workflow, but the step that requires
"commit and push" before compiling is a deal breaker for me. Is there no rsync
or good way to move a local copy to a remote dev server from the iPad?

~~~
zie
Well you have things like Dropbox and iCloud and box.net, etc, etc. They will
sync files across magically. Plus there are editors that can do it across
things like SFTP: [https://panic.com/coda-ios/](https://panic.com/coda-ios/)

~~~
mbreese
I have never gotten a cloud service to sync well to a (multiuser) server.
Maybe I just didn't try hard enough or it's gotten easier. But syncing to a
server so you can compile there is a pain no matter how it's done.

~~~
zie
Local dev is basically always better.

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jdc0589
meh...looks pretty rough to me still; that seems like a HUGE sacrifice coming
from a surface pro 4. As much as I don't like it, cloud based IDEs + dev
platforms seem like the only way for this to work.

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bluesign
For web development it can be OKish, but for the rest it is almost impossible.

Even for web development, there are a lot of obstacles on the way.

~~~
arvinsim
It's not even good for web development since you usually need the a separate
window for debugging/console output/network monitoring.

~~~
rsl7
so.. two iPads!

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wodenokoto
What's the benefit of this over a MacBook?

Is it that you "get an ipad" to use when not developing?

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jheriko
the thing is, every device can be used for web development these days.

"it’s quite possible to do advanced software development on the iPad"

the author's idea of advanced seems to correspond to what i consider the duplo
blocks of programming, which is sad. :/

try some actual software development and the ipad does not stack up, because
there are zero compilers for it and zero tools. on the other hand, that
surface 4 can run all of the industry standard tools except xcode and lets you
build native code for any platform, including those horrible apple ones and
complicated or specialist stuff like quantum computers or games consoles.

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fhood
For anyone who does code on an ipad, what is the advantage over a mac air or
similar?

~~~
nailer
Mac OS, like Windows, has fundamental latency and battery use issues that
can't be easily fixed without sacrificing backwards compatibility.

~~~
JollyGiant
What latency are you talking about? Decent PC or Mac with SSD is much faster
than iPad and can hold battery trough ~9 hours (depends on a workflow).

~~~
toasterlovin
You should look at benchmarks of latest iPad Pro vs. Mac laptops. iPad Pro is
faster than lower end Mac laptops and only a little bit slower than MacBook
Pros.

~~~
JollyGiant
Only in benchmarks. Look at the workflow presented in article. There is no
builds required nor CPU heavy processing. But there is a lot of switching
between applications, multi windows etc. iOS UI is not prepared for this kind
of workflow. Even the newest improvements on iPad Pro are far away from being
as useful and as fast as on normal laptop.

~~~
toasterlovin
Sorry, I misunderstood you. The way you phrased your earlier comment ("Mac
with SSD") made me think you were talking about hardware performance.

~~~
8draco8
On macs with without SSD UX is lagy

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jam-python
I'm super interested in being able to do this. I love the idea of an nearly
always on and connected device.

~~~
icedchai
Have you tried a laptop? In all seriousness, it's cheaper and more productive
than trying to code on an iPad.

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lolive
/sarcasm on

IntelliJ is finally available in the App Store? Count me in!

/sarcasm off

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awkwarddaturtle
Do people really "develop" on a tablet? I cringe when I see people "develop"
on a laptop. I can't imagine anyone developing on a tablet.

I need a keyword and two monitors at the very least.

~~~
nkristoffersen
Doesn't take much to connect a mechanical keyboard (assuming you meant
keyboard not keyword) to an iPad. And the keyboard shortcuts on the iPad are
becoming much more powerful.

You can of course connect an external monitor to an iPad, but not a lot of
applications are taking advantage of this ability yet (for extended screen
space).

But realistically, iPad won't be ready until they support the mouse due to
"gorilla arm" as it's called. Getting the iPad to eye level for proper
ergonomics require a lot more effort to raise your arm to interact with the
screen.

