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Anyone here use these for webdev (or development work more generally) as a replacement for a laptop? How well does that work? I'm very curious.

baybal2 7y ago
You can't install your own software on ios without jailbreak (which is not available since iphone 5 or so)
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Yes, you can. You just need to sign it appropriately. Also, there's been multiple jailbreaks since iPhone 5.
  - thejsa 7y ago
    Having to re-sign one’s apps every seven days (or pay $99/yr) barely counts, IMO; but yes, jailbreaking is easier than ever on any iPhone s as recent as the X/8.
- mattkevan 7y ago
  Take a look at AltStore.io. A workaround for sure, but definitely simplifies the process of signing and sideloading apps without jailbreaking.
scarface74 7y ago
I can’t imagine anyone wanting to use this for development. But then again, I don’t see how people develop without at least one, preferably two external monitors. The new MacBook Air for $999 would be a lot more appropriate.
kbumsik 7y ago
Definitely not for a web dev. 1. iPad doesn't have a serious IDE. And syncing your workspace with a local computer is not trivial. 2. Safari for iPad doesn't have a dev mode. 3. However, if you only use terminal and vi, iPad has a great terminal app: Blink. Honestly Blink is better than most of desktop terminal in the market. https://blink.sh/ https://blink.sh/
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Does Blink ship with vi? It's not listed in the set of utilities on its website.
  - kbumsik 7y ago
    Not locally. Its pre-shipped commands are useless. Blink is basically for SSH (or mosh, it is better than ssh). So you run vi on the remote machine.
  - cygned 7y ago
    It does ship with ed, though.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      I don’t see it on the list…
mattkevan 7y ago
I use an iPad Air for light webdev work. Built my personal website with it, using a few handy apps. Working Copy is an excellent Git client and pretty good text editor, Shellfish is great for FTP/SFTP. Other good editors include Buffer and Textastic. Terminus is a great terminal client (though the pro edition is pricey). Pythonista is a surprisingly powerful Python environment – with a bit of work I got Django working on it. Codea is the same for Lua. DraftCode is good for PHP, though more limited. Can run Wordpress and other PHP CMSs. There's other apps for JS/Node. Inspect gives on-device browser developer tools. Not the best but still useful. Plus, there's iSH, a Testflight-only app that provides a mostly complete Alpine Linux environment. Managed to get Git/Ruby/Jekyll running on it to develop a site locally, though it was slow.
- robenkleene 7y ago
  Have you written about these workflows anywhere? If so, I’d be interested in the links. This sounds like by far the most sophisticated iPad development workflow I’ve ever heard of anyone using.
welly 7y ago
At a stretch you can, although probably not as a primary/sole machine for web development. I bought an iPad Pro about a year ago with the intention of doing just that (and using it for other stuff). Essentially you need to be able to work from a remote server to do anything that could be considered serious web development. So prepare to spin yourself up an EC2 instance or a Digital Ocean droplet that you will be working from. There are some good tools available now - Working Copy (https://workingcopyapp.com/ https://workingcopyapp.com/) is a very good Git client Blink(https://blink.sh/ https://blink.sh/) is the terminal app you'd need And I've used a mixture of Kodex(https://kodex.app/ https://kodex.app/), Textastic(https://www.textasticapp.com/ https://www.textasticapp.com/) and GoCoEdit(https://gocoedit.app/ https://gocoedit.app/) for my editor. None of these are as good as something like SublimeText or a proper IDE but they are good, basic text editors with FTP/SFTP/etc. integration, code highlighting/folding/auto indentation etc. GoCoEdit I found to be probably the better of those three but they all offer something the others don't. There's a SQL Client you can use (if you're not that comfortable on the CLI with your chosen SQL server) called SQLPro which I believe is available for MySQL, Postgres, MS SQL Server or you can get one that covers all but it's not especially cheap - £55 a year or £150 one time payment. I've downloaded and used Dash, which is a documentation app that gives you offline access to API documentation for all your favourite languages and tools. So there are plenty of tools available - some of them integrate with each other more tightly but I've found you're still really limited in how much development you can do. There's nothing like Docker or Vagrant available, you couldn't run your favourite language locally in a terminal although I recall seeing a PHP parser and a Javascript environemtn available for iOS that gives you some ability to code locally. Nothing you could use for any serious work. Until Apple gives us the ability to get to the guts of iOS and install our own tools, realistically you're always going to be limited to working off a remote server for any serious work. I think the tools that are currently available are great but are limited. You may find a workflow that gets around the limitations and if you do, please share!
kache_ 7y ago
I use sidecar when I'm on the go with my iPad.

baybal2 7y ago

You can't install your own software on ios without jailbreak (which is not available since iphone 5 or so)

saagarjha 7y ago
Yes, you can. You just need to sign it appropriately. Also, there's been multiple jailbreaks since iPhone 5.
- thejsa 7y ago
  Having to re-sign one’s apps every seven days (or pay $99/yr) barely counts, IMO; but yes, jailbreaking is easier than ever on any iPhone s as recent as the X/8.
mattkevan 7y ago
Take a look at AltStore.io. A workaround for sure, but definitely simplifies the process of signing and sideloading apps without jailbreaking.

scarface74 7y ago

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to use this for development. But then again, I don’t see how people develop without at least one, preferably two external monitors. The new MacBook Air for $999 would be a lot more appropriate.

kbumsik 7y ago

Definitely not for a web dev. 1. iPad doesn't have a serious IDE. And syncing your workspace with a local computer is not trivial. 2. Safari for iPad doesn't have a dev mode. 3. However, if you only use terminal and vi, iPad has a great terminal app: Blink. Honestly Blink is better than most of desktop terminal in the market. https://blink.sh/ https://blink.sh/

saagarjha 7y ago
Does Blink ship with vi? It's not listed in the set of utilities on its website.
- kbumsik 7y ago
  Not locally. Its pre-shipped commands are useless. Blink is basically for SSH (or mosh, it is better than ssh). So you run vi on the remote machine.
- cygned 7y ago
  It does ship with ed, though.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    I don’t see it on the list…

mattkevan 7y ago

I use an iPad Air for light webdev work. Built my personal website with it, using a few handy apps. Working Copy is an excellent Git client and pretty good text editor, Shellfish is great for FTP/SFTP. Other good editors include Buffer and Textastic. Terminus is a great terminal client (though the pro edition is pricey). Pythonista is a surprisingly powerful Python environment – with a bit of work I got Django working on it. Codea is the same for Lua. DraftCode is good for PHP, though more limited. Can run Wordpress and other PHP CMSs. There's other apps for JS/Node. Inspect gives on-device browser developer tools. Not the best but still useful. Plus, there's iSH, a Testflight-only app that provides a mostly complete Alpine Linux environment. Managed to get Git/Ruby/Jekyll running on it to develop a site locally, though it was slow.

robenkleene 7y ago
Have you written about these workflows anywhere? If so, I’d be interested in the links. This sounds like by far the most sophisticated iPad development workflow I’ve ever heard of anyone using.

welly 7y ago

At a stretch you can, although probably not as a primary/sole machine for web development. I bought an iPad Pro about a year ago with the intention of doing just that (and using it for other stuff). Essentially you need to be able to work from a remote server to do anything that could be considered serious web development. So prepare to spin yourself up an EC2 instance or a Digital Ocean droplet that you will be working from. There are some good tools available now - Working Copy (https://workingcopyapp.com/ https://workingcopyapp.com/) is a very good Git client Blink(https://blink.sh/ https://blink.sh/) is the terminal app you'd need And I've used a mixture of Kodex(https://kodex.app/ https://kodex.app/), Textastic(https://www.textasticapp.com/ https://www.textasticapp.com/) and GoCoEdit(https://gocoedit.app/ https://gocoedit.app/) for my editor. None of these are as good as something like SublimeText or a proper IDE but they are good, basic text editors with FTP/SFTP/etc. integration, code highlighting/folding/auto indentation etc. GoCoEdit I found to be probably the better of those three but they all offer something the others don't. There's a SQL Client you can use (if you're not that comfortable on the CLI with your chosen SQL server) called SQLPro which I believe is available for MySQL, Postgres, MS SQL Server or you can get one that covers all but it's not especially cheap - £55 a year or £150 one time payment. I've downloaded and used Dash, which is a documentation app that gives you offline access to API documentation for all your favourite languages and tools. So there are plenty of tools available - some of them integrate with each other more tightly but I've found you're still really limited in how much development you can do. There's nothing like Docker or Vagrant available, you couldn't run your favourite language locally in a terminal although I recall seeing a PHP parser and a Javascript environemtn available for iOS that gives you some ability to code locally. Nothing you could use for any serious work. Until Apple gives us the ability to get to the guts of iOS and install our own tools, realistically you're always going to be limited to working off a remote server for any serious work. I think the tools that are currently available are great but are limited. You may find a workflow that gets around the limitations and if you do, please share!

kache_ 7y ago

I use sidecar when I'm on the go with my iPad.