Programming is not just about programming tools, it is about the OS environment. I prefer being able to arrange things anywhere, and the iPad has always bugged

Programming is not just about programming tools, it is about the OS environment. I prefer being able to arrange things anywhere, and the iPad has always bugged me by rationing shared-app screen space as if I’m a child (you get up to this fraction of the screen but it must be arranged only “here”; or, you can picture-in-picture but only the specified way; etc.). My first iPad was wonderful for web browsing until web sites started doing exactly the same rationing, “locking in” some arrangement that they deemed appropriate, to hell with my preferences. Even the iOS launch screen is irritating, with icons wastefully arranged in a specific way that looks like no desktop I have ever had; and the Files app is not much more useful for navigating. The OS is about 5 years overdue for a “put stuff wherever the hell I want” capability. And unfortunately, basic editing is also nowhere near where it needs to be on iOS. No matter how many hacks they add, cursor movement is still simply bad: it is way too hard to do the kind of precise changes I need to do. Pop-up menus are overloaded. The keyboard layout is asinine: unlike a physical keyboard, there is no room between the Delete and Return keys so I am constantly committing things early that I am still editing. (In cloud-sync apps like Notes, I occasionally permanently destroy text because I accidentally do something that is then screwed up on all other devices instantaneously for my convenience. When entering something like a URL, I regularly start “loading” an incompletely-typed address accidentally because the keyboard thinks I said Go.) Therefore, there is no way I would use a tablet until they essentially recreate proper window, file and cursor management with full arbitrary resize and effortless dragging and plenty of keyboard short-cuts. This feels like a consequence of Apple perhaps splitting up the iOS and Mac teams too much: the Mac did have quite a bit and it’s almost like they’re being told to consider none of it and just invent everything anew, no matter how long that takes.