Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on?

Posted by sdsdsdsdsdsds on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:15PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I find myself away from desktop/table for fairly long hours (Example, at the playgorund with kids, standing on subway etc). I have to write (office) code while at such places.

Is there a good phone you would recommend which makes it easy to write and compile code? (Java + Front end stuff)

( 7 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by davelnewton on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:27PM (#17050572)

None. Even tablets are considerably less than optimal (believe me, I've been trying for years now). Nothing on iOS has been suitable (caveat: I have not tried in the last six months), Android offerings tend to be better.

Java is even worse than some of the other options because of the syntactic noise: too many special characters are required in too many places.

At best you could do some limited code generation if you used some GUI-oriented block mechanism (e.g., Blockly that outputs Java code), but phone displays are small even for that limited form of interaction.

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by icedchai on Friday May 11, 2018 @05:46PM (#17050993)

I recommend getting a low-end laptop. No phones (or tablets) are good for writing code. Bonus: The laptop will probably be cheaper, too.

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by jmiller099 on Sunday May 20, 2018 @08:23PM (#17115453)

another thing came to mind today

the samsung galaxy note 8 plugged into the hp elite x3 lapdock is a great candidate. doing this gives you a larger screen, keyboard, and trackpad.

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by freehunter on Friday May 11, 2018 @06:06PM (#17051078)

If you can make Coda fit into your workflow, that plus a Bluetooth keyboard can be nice. Other than that, the on screen keyboard will be awful. Find a phone with a real keyboard (which seriously limits your options).

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by PaulHoule on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:17PM (#17050506)

How about a Windows tablet?

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by articlespub on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:25PM (#17050556)

A tablet by any manufacturer would be great.

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Re:Ask HN: What is a good phone for to write code on? by jmiller099 on Saturday May 12, 2018 @11:35AM (#17054514)

Gemini PDA is my recommendation.

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