
Dringend – iOS and Mac development on your iPad - davidbarker
http://www.dringend.cc/
======
MarcScott
I'd like to point out that the developer of this application is 17 years old.
He's a student at the school I work at and a fantastic programmer.

I don't know whether he'd be annoyed at me for mentioning this or not, but
given some of the negativity in the comments, I think it's worth noting. I
can't imagine the type of applications he'll be developing in a few years
time.

~~~
scott_karana
Holy crap. I know plenty of 20-somethings who haven't accomplished anything
close to this.

~~~
jason_slack
I know plenty of 30-40 somethings that call themselves programmers that
wouldn't know how to even prototype this.

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objectiveariel
It's a clever system: the app is really a text editor which sends the code you
write to your Mac. Your Mac builds the app and sends the binary back to your
iPad.

Pros:

* Code when you're on the move because... laptops haven't been invented yet?

Cons:

* You need an internet connection all the time. * No support for any version control system??? "Import your project from Dropbox and Dringend will handle syncing any changes you make in the app back to Dropbox." Dropbox for version control??? Are you joking? * No support for unit tests, asset catalog, breakpoints, interface builder...

I really don't get the point of this app, it's a cool hack but it's not an
IDE. Developing for iOS involves a complex and large set of essential tools,
no decent IDE for iOS can omit a single one of these tools.

~~~
jgarnham
Hi there, I'm the developer of this app so just thought I'd reply to some of
the cons you made.

You don't need an internet connection all the time, just simply for building
or running the application as Dringend needs to connect to the build server.

Support for git is coming up in version 1.2 and is going to be in the hands of
beta testers very soon.

Features such as support for asset catalogs and XIBs/Storyboards are also in
the pipeline.

~~~
je42
Glad to hear git support is on the way. This roadmap would a good addition to
your website.

~~~
jgarnham
Thanks. Took your advice and added a small section to the homepage detailing
features that are planned for the future.

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colbyh
Not trying to be rude because this obviously took a ton of effort, but why on
earth would I ever want to build iOS/Mac apps on an iPad? My fingers hurt just
thinking about it.

~~~
robterrell
Just to present a contrary viewpoint, I've wanted something like this for a
long time. So, kudos to the team behind it.

Why would I want it? I take my iPad everywhere, that's why. My iPad is my go-
to device.

I'm not at all certain it will work for me, or the workflow will be to my
linking, but I'm glad someone did it. And they'll get my ten bucks.

Curious to see how they handle provisioning & loading builds onto the same
device. Hopefully it's really seamless.

~~~
Jare
As I understand it, Dringend commands your remote xcode on your mac to build
your app. If the built ipa is placed in dropbox along with the install XML (or
was it html?), the ipa can then be installed from a dropbox url, works just
like Testflight.

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dep_b
Any particular reason why this app has the Dutch word for urgent as it's name?

~~~
jgarnham
It started out as a code name for the app and was chosen in particular because
it meant urgent in Dutch/German. The idea was something I had wanted to work
on for quite a while but I initially got sidetracked with other things and as
it was something I wanted to get working on as soon as possible I picked the
code name 'urgent' (Dringend).

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umsm
A little off topic: The video is almost pointless.

You cant clearly see the screen because of the horrible reflection. Maybe a
video of the app on the mac in the ipad simulator would be better.

~~~
happyscrappy
[http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/](http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/)

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druidsbane
Where has this been all these years? No idea if this project works (depends on
a local Mac so that ruins it for me), but it kills me that we can AirPlay to
TV's and run high resolution with bluetooth keyboard/mouse hookup and still we
can't develop on our iPhone/iPad?

~~~
seba_dos1
That's what you get when using a platform that's not developer, but app store
customer friendly. Without breaking into your own device you can't do much
with it, so it's hardly a surprise.

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AlfieHopkin
I, myself believe that what this guy has achieved is brilliant. Just 2 years
ago when I was 14 I released my first iOS game and there was an overwhelming
show support for me which encouraged me to do more, I think this guy deserves
the same! If he doesn't receive the support he needs he may never see an
interest in it again, give him a break, I doubt most people get past 'Hello
World' anyway.

The app is a brilliant idea and the possibilities are endless for what it
could potentially be, well done and continue doing what you're doing! - Alfie

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thekylemontag
Very impressive. Doesn’t seem like the easiest setup to actually do day-to-day
coding on. However seems like an awesome tool to do code reviews and small
touch ups / demoes on the go.

Really awesome work guys.

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jasonjei
I wonder if they'll have the Clang static analyzer running in the iPad or
they'll parse the syntax through a server. In the former case would be really
awesome, and possibly doable given the static analyzer is open source. Wonder
how much work is required to parse XIB and storyboards... I'd love to use this
on an airplane.

~~~
jgarnham
At the moment the app doesn't employ the use of the Clang static analyzer but
I am looking into using libClang both for live issues as you code and also for
auto complete. Also, XIB/Storyboard support is one that will be worked on just
as soon as git support is out of the door and in the hands of the users.

(I'm the dev by the way)

~~~
wingerlang
You could maybe look into the jailbreak community. It is possible to compile
(etc) on the device itself and they previously had an IDE in the works which
was never finished. I am sure they'd love to have a look at this.

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neals
So now that we are on the subject of IDE's for ipads. What are some other nice
apps to edit other languages on the go?

~~~
speg
I use [https://panic.com/prompt/](https://panic.com/prompt/) on my iPhone &
iPad to SSH into a machine and then just use VIM from there.

~~~
elithrar
I use Prompt + vim as well. I don't always travel with my personal laptop and
it's nice for prototyping or quick fixes.

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ansimionescu
I'm on a 13" MBAir and this happens when I play the embedded video and go
fullscreen (using Chrome stable).
[http://i.imgur.com/cr44bL6.png](http://i.imgur.com/cr44bL6.png)

I've never seen something like this before

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wellboy
Taking from the comments, it could be "useless", but the technology could be
very interesting and the start of something bigger. I can imagine that Apple
would be interesting in acquiring this technology and developing it further.

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JamesBaxter
But by requiring a remote build server I can't work without a network.

If I wanted to quick code reviews or checks I could just look at the
repository on my iPad.

Still very nice implentation. It must be scary writing a product that squeaks
past Apple's rules.

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chrisBob
The biggest thing I see missing is debugging. I am not sure how much
development I can do with out my NSLog statements. It shouldn't be hard to add
writing the debugging statements to a text file for your to check on the iPad.

~~~
jgarnham
This is something I've been look into, unfortunately whilst you can log to a
file rather than to the console it wouldn't be possible for Dringend to access
the file due to sandboxing. However, my current idea is overriding NSLog when
installing projects and funneling any logs into a custom pasteboard which
Dringend can then read from when it becomes the open app again.

Definitely consider this to be something I'm looking to include in a future
version, sooner rather than later.

~~~
chrisBob
I imagined that it would all be done through remote debugging with the file
accessed over dropbox, but I guess it makes sense that you would have to do it
locally.

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keehun
This is neat. Is it acting most as a GUI to xcode CLI tools that's running on
OSX?

Would be a little nicer if they made it clear in the video demo that you need
a Mac as a build server and Dropbox for storage.

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iamwithnail
I think that's pretty awesome - I've been wanting something like that for
Python django for a while, so I will be waiting still, but things are going in
the right direction, top work.

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yconst
Some functionality for working with XIBs in an intuitive way would be a great
feature. Same for Core Data models.

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United857
"Run" on the iPad? How do they get around the App Store prohibition on
downloaded binary code?

~~~
United857
Answering my own question -- looks like it just builds the IPA on the Mac,
uploads it to Dropbox, and installs it on the device.

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jason_slack
Does it work with existing C++ XCode projects?

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je42
i would have expected fully integrated with git... not having any git support
for dev box is a show stopper.

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hendzen
Seems pretty similar to [http://thebinaryapp.com/](http://thebinaryapp.com/)

~~~
pat2man
Except it is for native iOS apps. Ends up being completely different.

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phrasz
\+ Developing on iOS directly.

\-
[https://www.google.com/search?num=30&q=define+integrated+dev...](https://www.google.com/search?num=30&q=define+integrated+development+environment)
==> IDE usually means it is standalone. This project is a wrapper for remote
Xcode.

Kudos on the work. I was TOTALLY misled thinking I could dev right on the
device (see Terminal IDE on Android...). $10 for a remote wrapper is too rich
for my blood.

~~~
phrasz
Also: "Dringend lets you build and run your application wherever you are in
the world" should be starred: "Dringend lets you build and run your
application wherever you are in the world * " * Network connectivity required.

I'm pretty sure a jerk would jump in a Faraday cage and cite how they couldn't
use the app.

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ekr
I've never been interested in Apple stuff, but if you already have a keyboard,
why not go keyboard-only, in a way similar to Vim. That should certainly be
way more efficient.

And thinking about it, do people realize how much effort is being replicated
with these "app stores". There are already plenty of free(as in freedom)
editors and IDE's out there, that would need no adaptations(in the case of
Vim) whatsoever to run on mobile devices, if only the devices themselves were
just a little bit more free.

~~~
robotresearcher
Vim on the Apple app store:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vim/id492668168?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vim/id492668168?mt=8)

~~~
HeshamA
Thanks for the link. Didn't know I could hack on VIM on my iDevice. Balance
restored to the universe.

