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My point has not been to dissuade you from what you prefer to use, merely to highlight the alternatives. And with how you're describing Termux it sounds like it

My point has not been to dissuade you from what you prefer to use, merely to highlight the alternatives. And with how you're describing Termux it sounds like it doesn't need a package manager (app store), anything more advanced to describe files than ascii/binary pipes (share sheets), doesn't need to natively interact with the cloud (fopen vs Files app APIs), definitely doesn't need a GUI outside of ascii art or whatever random xwindowing GUI is supported... I will say there's innovation in a platform that's completely untethered and allows processes to run as root. Jailbreaking on iOS early on provided much innovation. Similarly diverse hardware gives you lots of options too. But let me know how other apps -- native Android ones -- interact with that app. Can Google interact with it? See, that's the difference an OS standard makes. The app you're describing, Termux, builds on top of existing Linux standards, including GNU utilities and distributions building and packaging apps. If you jailbreak on iOS, you can install deb packages too. It's not like the kernel doesn't support these features. All we need, obviously, is a virtual machine or emulator powerful enough, and you've got your Termux on iOS. I'm absolutely not arguing against it, I'm just saying, "it's an app!" And the platform features on iOS are more widely distributed, adopted and often more innovative, than the equivalent on Android, and that's where the power comes from. Sure, one app, like iSH or Termux, will give you superpowers, and rooting or jailbreaking can give you even more control over your phone. But if the platform's not innovating, 90-95% of users won't benefit. And if you haven't found advantages to touch screens, cellphone form factors, music subscription services, and other forms of interaction beyond terminal, well ... I'm sorry we haven't made much progress technologically since Unix time sharing that you find useful...

dredmorbius 7y ago
Termux can use Android intents (termux-open), and interact with the system in multiple ways, see pastebin of commands: https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57 https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57 Primary app-to-termux interaction is via the filesystem and saved content -- downloads and the like. For obvious reasons, arbitrary command access to Termux from apps would be hazardous, much as it is on any desktop OS. Android filesystem access restricts this somewhat, though the system Downloads and "My Documents" directories are globally accessible. There is also clipboard integration (termux-clipboard-get and -set), which I've aliased to xc and xp, respectively, much as I do similar OSX and Linux commands. So "xp | vim -" is a thing. Very handy use is a titlecase script which converts strings, especially all-caps, for HN submission: xp | titlecase > tmpfile && xc < tmpfile && rm tmpfile (The script handles numerous edge cases.) As for Google accessing Termux: Why would I want that? Google already has its (badly crippled) Android userland, as well as OS APIs and features. Termux is principally a userland -- a shell and utilities for user-initiated and directed interactions. See by comparison Debian's Social Contract, Policy, and other guiding documents. Key among their principles is that the project's focus is its users, and that its policies serve to constrain the developers as to what they must provide, and must not do. Though Termux lacks such specific language its spirit (and Debian heritage) strongly suggest a similar orientation and philosophy. As for "it's an app", that's both solipsistic and utterly fails to recognise that this app is singularly powerful and expansive in the spirit of the original Unix,[1] in ways that effectively no other single Android app (save other user command shells) can even hope to be. ________________________________ Notes: 1. See K&P's The UNIX Programming Environment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environme...). My 'Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User" addresses the distiction as well: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr...

dredmorbius 7y ago

Termux can use Android intents (termux-open), and interact with the system in multiple ways, see pastebin of commands: https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57 https://pastebin.com/raw/4e7UwM57 Primary app-to-termux interaction is via the filesystem and saved content -- downloads and the like. For obvious reasons, arbitrary command access to Termux from apps would be hazardous, much as it is on any desktop OS. Android filesystem access restricts this somewhat, though the system Downloads and "My Documents" directories are globally accessible. There is also clipboard integration (termux-clipboard-get and -set), which I've aliased to xc and xp, respectively, much as I do similar OSX and Linux commands. So "xp | vim -" is a thing. Very handy use is a titlecase script which converts strings, especially all-caps, for HN submission: xp | titlecase > tmpfile && xc < tmpfile && rm tmpfile (The script handles numerous edge cases.) As for Google accessing Termux: Why would I want that? Google already has its (badly crippled) Android userland, as well as OS APIs and features. Termux is principally a userland -- a shell and utilities for user-initiated and directed interactions. See by comparison Debian's Social Contract, Policy, and other guiding documents. Key among their principles is that the project's focus is its users, and that its policies serve to constrain the developers as to what they must provide, and must not do. Though Termux lacks such specific language its spirit (and Debian heritage) strongly suggest a similar orientation and philosophy. As for "it's an app", that's both solipsistic and utterly fails to recognise that this app is singularly powerful and expansive in the spirit of the original Unix,[1] in ways that effectively no other single Android app (save other user command shells) can even hope to be. ________________________________ Notes: 1. See K&P's The UNIX Programming Environment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environme...). My 'Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User" addresses the distiction as well: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyranny_of_the_minimum_viable_user/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr...