6 ms·

My Holy Grail Of iPhone Apps Arrives: pTerm

27 points by terpua 18y ago

sh1mmer 18y ago
The screen shots in the article showed top running but clipped to fit in the screen. Does anyone know if they support multitouch zooming like Safari? That would be great.
- fozy 18y ago
  I don't think any of those screen shots were cropped, you can always see the status bar on the iPhone.
whalesalad 18y ago
The screenshots of this app are horrible. It looks like whoever made it didn't use native iPhone GUI elements... the corners and edges of the toggle between SSH // Telnet // Raw TCP look like total crap. The text for the nickname, port, etc... seems to be squeezed a bit and it appears blurred (unless of course this is due to a photoshop edit later on). And for $5... come on! PuTTY is free and open source, why isn't this too! I upgraded to 2.0.1 and lost all my jailbroken functionality in exchange for stable and bug-free core features. I'm definitely going that route again once they catch up and release their latest Pwnage tool.
pauljonas 18y ago
I understand developers wish to be rewarded for their effort but paying for a terminal program just seems so wrong.
- amackera 18y ago
  Especially one based off of FOS code!
  - riklomas 18y ago
    OSX was based on BSD and people don't mind paying for OSX...
- stcredzero 18y ago
  I wonder if it would be against the NDA to write and distribute a targeted parser/rewriter that transforms a particular bit of FOSS code to something that runs on the iPhone? You wouldn't be distributing your iPhone app's code. You wouldn't be distributing the FOSS code -- presumably it's already being distributed by someone else. What you would be distributing the source code for wouldn't be running on the iPhone.
- axod 18y ago
  Especially when you can just install a free ajax version on your own server, and access that from the iphones browser.
  - pauljonas 18y ago
    Eh, that might not be a good idea...
    - axod 18y ago
      Erm why? https, password protected interface to an ssh webapp?
      - river_styx 18y ago
        I see two major flaws with this approach. First, it's invasive. You have to open an additional hole in your network to allow traffic into the app, which makes your network inherently less secure. Second, unless you do an audit of the source, there are no guarantees as to the security of the app itself. This app of unknown reliability would be acting as a 24/7 gatekeeper into your network. You could hide it behind VPN, I guess, but that kinda defeats the purpose of secure shell.
        nailer 18y ago
        #2 also applies to a locally installed SSH app.
        river_styx 18y ago
        Not really. OpenSSH is a battle-tested ssh server. You can be resonably sure that opening it to the world will not compromise your network. Not so of this ajax ssh app. Basically it's a question of exposure. Am I comfortable exposing OpenSSH? Yes. Ajax ssh app? No way. Not without further testing and widespread acceptance.
        18y ago
- nailer 18y ago
  Cydia already has a terminal emulator and SSH (and nc if you need it) too.
noonespecial 18y ago
My kingdom for the TAB key! Seriously, when you're using one of these little guys, be it Apple, Nokia, whatever, autocomplete is your friend! The tab key is always missing, or 3 clicks or taps away.
- awt 18y ago
  I couldn't believe there was no way to tab.
arn 18y ago
there's another app that sounds like it will have more features that's still in the app store approval queue http://www.zinger-soft.com/ http://www.zinger-soft.com/ post by dev: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=5977302&postcount=14 http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=5977302&postc...
- jacobbijani 18y ago
  Ouch, that must really suck. They also could have been "the first iPhone terminal app" if they were just approved sooner.
- nailer 18y ago
  This sounds like you could actually use it for work - they've emphasized key combinations and it has X too. Here's hoping they use a decent sans font rather than the horribly unreadable serif crap that's been floating around most terminal apps.
stcredzero 18y ago
TouchTerm is only $2.99 as of this writing.
- sc 18y ago
  TouchTerm does not support terminal emulation. So, once you SSH into a server, good luck editing anything.
  - ralph 18y ago
    Some of us are old enough to have used ed(1) out of necessity. :-) These days, `sed -i' is also useful for quick one-liners.
jrockway 18y ago
No control key or ESC key? So much for doing ... anything.
- thorax 18y ago
  There's a ctrl key in the top right of the screen rather than on the keyboard.
- nailer 18y ago
  No quickly accessible tab either from what I can tell.
jawngee 18y ago
Gee with that virtual keyboard, looks awesome, where do I sign up? /sarcasm
- rufo 18y ago
  Yup, works great. You can buy one at http://apple.com/iphone/ http://apple.com/iphone/ /nosarcasm
henning 18y ago
Wow, a feature that comes standard on other high-end phones? Unbelievable! http://maddox.xmission.com/putty3.gif http://maddox.xmission.com/putty3.gif After waiting several months for developers to write and release code, you might be able to cobble together a bunch of apps that make up for the iPhone's flaws. The situation is identical to that of Windows.

27 points by terpua 18y ago

The screen shots in the article showed top running but clipped to fit in the screen. Does anyone know if they support multitouch zooming like Safari? That would be great.

fozy 18y ago
I don't think any of those screen shots were cropped, you can always see the status bar on the iPhone.

whalesalad 18y ago

The screenshots of this app are horrible. It looks like whoever made it didn't use native iPhone GUI elements... the corners and edges of the toggle between SSH // Telnet // Raw TCP look like total crap. The text for the nickname, port, etc... seems to be squeezed a bit and it appears blurred (unless of course this is due to a photoshop edit later on). And for $5... come on! PuTTY is free and open source, why isn't this too! I upgraded to 2.0.1 and lost all my jailbroken functionality in exchange for stable and bug-free core features. I'm definitely going that route again once they catch up and release their latest Pwnage tool.

pauljonas 18y ago

I understand developers wish to be rewarded for their effort but paying for a terminal program just seems so wrong.

amackera 18y ago
Especially one based off of FOS code!
- riklomas 18y ago
  OSX was based on BSD and people don't mind paying for OSX...
stcredzero 18y ago
I wonder if it would be against the NDA to write and distribute a targeted parser/rewriter that transforms a particular bit of FOSS code to something that runs on the iPhone? You wouldn't be distributing your iPhone app's code. You wouldn't be distributing the FOSS code -- presumably it's already being distributed by someone else. What you would be distributing the source code for wouldn't be running on the iPhone.
axod 18y ago
Especially when you can just install a free ajax version on your own server, and access that from the iphones browser.
- pauljonas 18y ago
  Eh, that might not be a good idea...
  - axod 18y ago
    Erm why? https, password protected interface to an ssh webapp?
    - river_styx 18y ago
      I see two major flaws with this approach. First, it's invasive. You have to open an additional hole in your network to allow traffic into the app, which makes your network inherently less secure. Second, unless you do an audit of the source, there are no guarantees as to the security of the app itself. This app of unknown reliability would be acting as a 24/7 gatekeeper into your network. You could hide it behind VPN, I guess, but that kinda defeats the purpose of secure shell.
      - nailer 18y ago
        #2 also applies to a locally installed SSH app.
        river_styx 18y ago
        Not really. OpenSSH is a battle-tested ssh server. You can be resonably sure that opening it to the world will not compromise your network. Not so of this ajax ssh app. Basically it's a question of exposure. Am I comfortable exposing OpenSSH? Yes. Ajax ssh app? No way. Not without further testing and widespread acceptance.
        18y ago
nailer 18y ago
Cydia already has a terminal emulator and SSH (and nc if you need it) too.

noonespecial 18y ago

My kingdom for the TAB key! Seriously, when you're using one of these little guys, be it Apple, Nokia, whatever, autocomplete is your friend! The tab key is always missing, or 3 clicks or taps away.

awt 18y ago
I couldn't believe there was no way to tab.

arn 18y ago

there's another app that sounds like it will have more features that's still in the app store approval queue http://www.zinger-soft.com/ http://www.zinger-soft.com/ post by dev: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=5977302&postcount=14 http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=5977302&postc...

jacobbijani 18y ago
Ouch, that must really suck. They also could have been "the first iPhone terminal app" if they were just approved sooner.
nailer 18y ago
This sounds like you could actually use it for work - they've emphasized key combinations and it has X too. Here's hoping they use a decent sans font rather than the horribly unreadable serif crap that's been floating around most terminal apps.

stcredzero 18y ago

TouchTerm is only $2.99 as of this writing.

sc 18y ago
TouchTerm does not support terminal emulation. So, once you SSH into a server, good luck editing anything.
- ralph 18y ago
  Some of us are old enough to have used ed(1) out of necessity. :-) These days, `sed -i' is also useful for quick one-liners.

jrockway 18y ago

No control key or ESC key? So much for doing ... anything.

thorax 18y ago
There's a ctrl key in the top right of the screen rather than on the keyboard.
nailer 18y ago
No quickly accessible tab either from what I can tell.

jawngee 18y ago

Gee with that virtual keyboard, looks awesome, where do I sign up? /sarcasm

rufo 18y ago
Yup, works great. You can buy one at http://apple.com/iphone/ http://apple.com/iphone/ /nosarcasm

henning 18y ago

Wow, a feature that comes standard on other high-end phones? Unbelievable! http://maddox.xmission.com/putty3.gif http://maddox.xmission.com/putty3.gif After waiting several months for developers to write and release code, you might be able to cobble together a bunch of apps that make up for the iPhone's flaws. The situation is identical to that of Windows.