>That may be why it hasn't happed yet as many of us probably feel that way.

I don't know about that; one of Apple's hallmarks is that they aren't afraid to compete with their own products. Some companies would have said "We can't make the tablet into a powerful computer, it would cut into notebook sales.

Especially with the USB-C change, these iPads are a serious competitor to Apple's laptops for pretty much anyone except developers. In a lot of ways they're better. Just not for programming because the software is still too sandboxed.

Here's hoping that Xcode shows up.

Same here. Especially with the new hardware from this year. Apple puts a ton of engineering into these new iOS devices, a little sad that the Mac lines don't really get the same treatment.

I feel we are insanely close to this reality though. We have large enough displays now (even on the small one), external display support, external keyboard support and USB-C so we can actually plug in an iPhone into the iPad itself (Though this could have been skirted with the advent of wireless debugging support in Xcode. I'd still rather have the wire though.) Only thing I really want is some kind of trackpad or trackpad replacement. Or even just mouse support and I'll drop one in my bag.

Xcode would need a shitload of polishing to approach the stability and UX standards of an iOS application. I desperately wish they would have a few release cycles of pure stabilisation work.

That was the whole point of Xcode 10…

10 has been much better for me.

I like my mouse too much for this to be possible.

Selecting/moving text with a finger is more annoying.