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This is a repost of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18338048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18338048 I was hoping we would see XCode for the iPad.

This is a repost of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18338048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18338048 I was hoping we would see XCode for the iPad. The Swift Playgrounds app really does not cut it.The Swift Playgrounds app really hasn’t gotten any love[1] since it was first introduced. You can actually import UIKit and the other frameworks and compile them on the iPad but this is pretty much undocumentated. The preview views are tremendously buggy (really the whole app is) and there is all sorts of hidden debug stuff running in the background[2] that slows down performance. Everything has to be in a single file so doing anything moderately complicated is a pain, the editor is buggy and will sometimes highlight just the last three letters of a word, and there is no Interface Builder[3]. I would love a real XCode. [1]There have been new playgrounds added (e.g. “Learn to Code with Swift”) but the app itself really hasn’t been changed at all. The same bugs have been present for years. And they aren’t obscur either. You will run into editor bugs within the first 5 minutes. [2] The debug stuff is to help facilitate the different playgrounds, but doesn’t really provide any benefit to someone coding in a blank file outside of a playground. You can’t turn it off within the app. [3] I know a lot of people don’t like IB, but it’s great for throwing together simple apps quickly. It’s odd that it is absent from the official apple App but Pythonista, an app made by one person, has an visual interface editor.

neolefty 8y ago
I can't imagine XCode could run in the RAM available on an iPad — maybe rework it to do the heavy lifting in the cloud?
- saagarjha 8y ago
  iPad Pro has 4 GB of RAM. There are Macs with that much RAM that can run Xcode.
  - metafizikal 8y ago
    But iOS doesn't have a concept of swap like a traditional PC OS like macOS or Windows does, does it?
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      No, but iOS can kill apps in the background during times of high memory pressure.
      - rhacker 8y ago
        So it can run xcode for about 4 seconds until the OS decides to kill it?
        saagarjha 8y ago
        > in the background
        rhacker 8y ago
        So when you debug your app?
        saagarjha 8y ago
        Killing Xcode would also end your debug session. Presumably Apple will think that far ahead and grant the necessary entitlements so that this doesn't happen.
    - Ivoah 8y ago
      iOS still runs the darwin kernel. I'd be shocked if it didn't use swap.
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        It doesn't, I believe mostly for reasons of keeping apps from using large amounts of memory in general, and by helping keep write cycles to a minimum.
        glhaynes 8y ago
        I've always figured it had most to do with keeping responsiveness high and predictable.
  - jbigelow76 8y ago
    The 1TB configs have 6 GB of RAM making it even less of leap to assume they can do it soon.
- kitsunesoba 8y ago
  It would be very unlike Apple to lean on cloud tech for this kind of thing. iPads won’t run Xcode until they have sufficient specs to do so on their own.
jbigelow76 8y ago
XCode on iPad seems like a WWDC type announcement. And if there is some sort of new declarative UI that will target iOS and macOS they may just wait a year or two until that is ready (not that XCode as is would be ready today even if Apple wanted it). If they can get Photoshop on the iPad I’m optimistic we’ll get some kind of iOS IDE in the next 9-18 months.

neolefty 8y ago

I can't imagine XCode could run in the RAM available on an iPad — maybe rework it to do the heavy lifting in the cloud?

saagarjha 8y ago
iPad Pro has 4 GB of RAM. There are Macs with that much RAM that can run Xcode.
- metafizikal 8y ago
  But iOS doesn't have a concept of swap like a traditional PC OS like macOS or Windows does, does it?
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    No, but iOS can kill apps in the background during times of high memory pressure.
    - rhacker 8y ago
      So it can run xcode for about 4 seconds until the OS decides to kill it?
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        > in the background
        rhacker 8y ago
        So when you debug your app?
        saagarjha 8y ago
        Killing Xcode would also end your debug session. Presumably Apple will think that far ahead and grant the necessary entitlements so that this doesn't happen.
  - Ivoah 8y ago
    iOS still runs the darwin kernel. I'd be shocked if it didn't use swap.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      It doesn't, I believe mostly for reasons of keeping apps from using large amounts of memory in general, and by helping keep write cycles to a minimum.
      - glhaynes 8y ago
        I've always figured it had most to do with keeping responsiveness high and predictable.
- jbigelow76 8y ago
  The 1TB configs have 6 GB of RAM making it even less of leap to assume they can do it soon.
kitsunesoba 8y ago
It would be very unlike Apple to lean on cloud tech for this kind of thing. iPads won’t run Xcode until they have sufficient specs to do so on their own.

jbigelow76 8y ago

XCode on iPad seems like a WWDC type announcement. And if there is some sort of new declarative UI that will target iOS and macOS they may just wait a year or two until that is ready (not that XCode as is would be ready today even if Apple wanted it). If they can get Photoshop on the iPad I’m optimistic we’ll get some kind of iOS IDE in the next 9-18 months.