All I need now is a decent terminal for iPad OS AND some kind of USB-C hub to allow charging AND display out the same time.

C# is basically "built for IDEs", even VS code can't hold a candle to Rider or Visual Studio - vim and friends are a joke in comparison.

I like iPad form factor and would love the idea of using it as a thin client for development, but unless JetBrains come up with iOS client for remote development (which I doubt) it's a non-starter for me.

Also what's stopping you from charging form USB-C monitor and using it as a hub ?

I remote into a full Windows VM, we use VS 2019.

>>> Also what's stopping you from charging form USB-C monitor and using it as a hub ?

My USB-C monitor can't charge for some reason. It's one of the first 43 inch USB-C supporting monitors.

It wouldn’t be stupid if they would, especially that they are moving towards an architecture of a thin client communicating with the extracted intellij core, even selling remote cloud offerings. Actually, it would likely bring lots of money to them if they come up with a seriously good ipad client.

Do you use Blink by any chance?

I don't know about C#, it's not an ecosystem I swim in at all, but there are multiple python options (including Pyto, the venerable Pythonista and jupyter notebook hosts like Juno & Carnets). There are js environments like Scriptable and Play.js. And it's not Xcode but Swift Playgrounds offers, of course, swift including swift.ui and the ability to redistribute those projects (with some limitations) including submitting directly to the App Store.

I get it; I use an iPad a lot for a great many things. It's not perfect - I have a long list of things I would like to see addressed. Low effort complaints like "let me know when I can code on it" are just that though; low effort. So those who complain "how to code on it?" or about how it exactly match the workflow they use on a completely different platform etc just sound.... whiney.

Low effort noise when some basic infrastructure could enable so many other workflows. I like my iPad, I use it every day, I hope to use more with less friction soon-ish. Yup, same thing every June.

It's the most flexible computer I own. It could be even more so, which I would appreciate, but that depends largely on apple.

For the work I do I can code *locally* but I *don't have to*. Comparing it to a Switch is completely missing what makes them different. Even an attempted reductio ad absurdum should be a little more rigorous than that.

this isn't about not being able to code on an iPad. that's easy and people having been doing it for about a decade.

this is just about some people still being mad that they don't get root on a machine they buy. I can understand being mad about that, but just say what you mean. don't pretend you can't code on it when people have been doing that basically since day one.

Still not entirely sure what you actually do with it beyond light editing, even with your $5 apps.

Written by...who knows.

- Pythonista is a python IDE for iOS

- iSH Shell is an emulated x86 terminal environment

I still wish they would allow a full dev sandbox on iPad. It can be fully isolated from the root filesystem, I just want to have a terminal, local git repos, and be able to point a text editor at it.

The main difference is in the UI libraries each app provides, which aren't cross-compatible. If you want to run plain text-based Python and work with a REPL, they feel very similar. Pyto ship with Python 3.10, though.

In the past I tried to report bugs to the developer but never got any reply

What I don’t understand is why people who have popular apps and decide to stop working on them don’t sell them so someone else can keep them alive. Pythonista is awesome, and lots of people use it. I’m sure someone out there would happily step up to help keep it alive or take it over.

This is not a setup for serious development.

I agree that the current solutions aren’t great, thus the second part of my comment wishing for a real on-device dev sandbox which would solve many of those issues.

there are a few other python environments that support pip install

Back in real life, however, a Python programming environment limited to "just what it offers in the box" might make some "happy", but it's very easy to argue that it's not serious.

Do you mean the "real life" where UNIX CLI stuff gets cargo culted as the only way a developer works?

I tried running git clone <some reasonably sized project> and ish died.

I am interested in helping out with iSH development, but it isn't really viable at the moment. It's claim to fame is a partial JIT that runs legally despite apple's jit restrictions

Honestly the whoLe ‘I wish I could code on my iPad’ thing and complaining kids can’t learn to code on them, has been tired for a very, very long time. Many of these dev environments came out more than 10 years ago now. Being able to develop in swift and publish to the App Store directly for the device for free was announced at WWDC and released last year, but people still keep moaning about it. Pay attention people!

I don't believe there are any well-established general text editors that offers decent git and text editing. Syntax highlighting for a few langs, etc.

And then language runtimes. I do Elixir so I need Erlang plus Elixir. The machine could run those fine but I don't think you would be allowed to ship those via Apple's store.

Plenty of limitations. Kids can probably learn to code on them, depending on what they want and like. The argumenta may be tired but so are the unsolved unsolved problems I feel.

Koder and Textastic are pretty comprehensive coding editors. Working Copy is the premiere git client and works well with both.

I (honestly) don't understand the appeal of writing code on an iPad. Feels like the Air or Macbook Pro already do that: a keyboard with a screen. I'd feel cramped if I had to develop on something like iPad OS.

The benefit of the iPad is the touch screen, that's it. The size/weight argument is only valid for those who aren't loading it up with a keyboard cover. I assume everyone talking about coding on it are going to be using the Magic Keyboard.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21227741/apple-ipad-pro-m...

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/ipad-keyboards/folio...

My iPad has better battery, cellular, etc…

Do I use it to code, no, but that is because I don’t really code anymore. I have used it along with parallels access to remote in to my Air from literally across the world, and run VSCode to troubleshoot some code for a friend. It worked fine. Anymore it’s become my travel machine.

The fact that you can remove the keyboard half is a big benefit to some as well.

If you are going somewhere and will want to type when you get there, the Magic Keyboard is coming with you. It folds up to act as a case for your iPad during transit... it is a portable device.

It’s also less invasive that way, you can get a laptop stand but it looks ridiculous in coffee shops.

What you call artificially dumbing down others would call optimising for the form factor.

There is almost nothing stopping people from writing up iPad apps for coding things up, except for the fact that there is no market. Apple is no longer standing in the way IMO (stuff like Pythonista exists after all)

Is the context I described responsible for the lack of market? It may be.

I still think that iOS is the best mobile experience out there, but it's

It requires consciously designing everything to work as both a fully fledged computer and content consumption device. That touches everything from product design, internal hardware, thermals, operating systems, frameworks etc.

And what you say about 'consciously designed ...' amounts to nothing meaningful. Have you seen what hardware people have been running Doom on?

So does my watch, my fridge and my car.

iPad's hardware is already a perfectly usable general purpose computer. It is very portable, unlike your fridge, and has powerful processor and high-capacity battery, unlike your watch. The only problem preventing its use as a general purpose computer in a sense of Macbook is a lock by the manufacturer, which prevents loading a proper OS on it, and the absence of hardware specs, nothing more.

And an iPad is nowhere close to the safety-critical nature of the other computers. There is no defence for its locked down nature.

I’m going to skip answering and simply say I would like to code on my iPad too

I would guess that Apple fears that Epic will start using untrusted VMs to distribute Fortnite outside the App Store. Though, honestly, they're not far from being able to do that with a hypothetical WebAssembly/WebGL version already.

iPad OS 16 also adds virtual memory for the first time on an iOS device.

It makes me wonder how much life my 2018 iPad Pro has left. I think it only has 3GB of RAM, which I could see being more important, as Apple adds more multitasking to the OS.

I have also seen that claim, but I have a really hard time believing they didn’t have swap before. Like hell, I’m sure they must have used memory compression as well..

The latter is pretty rare given how much work has been put into notifying apps about memory pressure, making them easily suspend/resume, and not using garbage collection.

Also, sorry to be pedantic but reference counting is a garbage collector algorithm, but I do understand what you mean here (RC needs less memory at the price of not being able to defer work to a concurrent thread)

I guess I really want some weird hybrid of both OSes.

I have a Mac Mini at home, but lately while doing some prep for interviews (sigh, leetcode), I’ve been going to the library or other places with my iPad and a BT keyboard, and it’s not half-bad to write some code. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) I’ve been mostly writing code on a DigitalOcean instance that I SSH to. That can be trickier if Wi-Fi is shaky where I am since my iPad doesn’t have access to mobile networks and my phone doesn’t do tethering.

Nowadays newer iPads can even hook up to external displays. So form-factor wise, you’re not necessarily missing much, even if you prefer more screen real-estate.

It would definitely be nice to have a native Terminal shell, though.

When I'm home I don't really need the iPad for this (much). There a few use cases where it's clearly better than my MacBook Pro though: the screen is veerry nice outside and I've written more in a hammock than you'd think. Also - airplanes which I am on more often than I'd like to be. an iPad Pro with the magic keyboard is fantastically shallow. It fits on a tray better than anything else.

But you can take it off and write notes with it, pass it around, etc.

It's not even about the money, it's the sheer audacity and arrogance that shits me.

Until I can plug a screen and a keyboard to my iPad and write something as sophisticated as Cultured Code's Things on it, there is still ways to go.

If these were your two requirements, you wouldn't need an Air or MBP either.

The day I can finally code on this thing is the day that I stop carrying a laptop with me.

I gave up on the idea of coding in my iPad when I realized that my iPad Pro, with the keyboard, weighed as much as a MacBook. There was no real benefit after that point, so I stopped trying. :(

I'd really love to see a native vscode on ipad.

Just put MacOS on the damn thing already.

This is the one I use. It talks about subscriptions, but works for free if you supply your own remote VM/server.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/servediter-for-code-server/id1...

It's also only M1-based iPads, though this is a minor distinction.

It's not as good as my laptop and the functionality in every aspect is still very limited. The only unique feature is drawing/notes which might work for artists but paper is good enough for me.

I want to like it but for now it's still a giant iphone with a pen.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/codesandbox/id1423330822

Laptops and IDEs are fine. How does anyone possibly want to do anything without multiple screens anyway?

Airplanes are the clearest, but not frequent use case. A 15" MBP is just a bit too big to comfortably use.

Broadly, it'd be nice in more casual settings where I don't want to haul a MBP around.

As you say it's entirely an OS limit not a hardware limit.

“Pro” != Developer. There are many other professions

The problem is that if you do all those things on an iPad, you don't own your data. It belongs to whatever walled garden you're working in. Uninstall the app and your data is gone. Stop renting cloud and your data is gone. The company running the app goes bankrupt and your data might be gone.

This is the fundamental difference I see between "mobile" and "desktop" ecosystems. Mobile is designed from the ground up to place you into a much more subservient relationship to vendors. I've described the mobile ecosystem as "feudal computing."