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Ah, alright. Well I a big challenge will be your interface since that's the primary change between desktop/mobile development. And most people seem to be innova
by mikegreenberg 14y ago
Ah, alright. Well I a big challenge will be your interface since that's the primary change between desktop/mobile development. And most people seem to be innovating on that. I did see a few interesting demos that focused on new UI paradigms. LightTable was particularly interesting. Even though it was never demoed on a mobile device, I don't think it's hard to imagine how LightTable might work on an iPad.
The hardest problem, I think, is the environment. The UI stuff (like getting the same density of information around and under your hands while you're working on a piece of code) will get solved pretty easily. I'm more concerned that closed systems (like Apple's) will be threatening to any type of local development environment. Even basic web development, I'd expect to get full access to the developer tools within mobile Safari if I wanted.
Remote development (via ssh, perhaps) is a compromising solution here, but I'd really like to do my development offline if I need to. Being tether to an internet connection can be distracting and something you want the option of especially if you're mobile.
I have seen some interesting attempts to create an all-in-one solution within Android (and can't find the project right now) that has shell access with vi and ruby/python/scala interpreters/compilers built in.
I think progress in this area is happening much quicker than you think.
- revorad 14y agoTo some extent I feel the opposite is true - local dev might get solved more easily than a good mobile UI. Because of the relatively open nature of Android, we're already seeing things like Android AIDE (as aniruddh mentioned in another comment here). With increasing power in mobile devices, we can definitely expect more powerful tools for on-device offline development. But a good UI won't just come out of increasing processing power. It will take more deliberate effort.
- mikegreenberg 14y agoLocal dev has a great opportunity on Android, but Android tablets are still the minority. (I own one myself, but know only a handful of other people who do, too.) I think iPad has to be considered a target if mobile programming will ever become mainstream. Until Apple and developers can make nice and find a nice tradeoff between control-of-the-experience and hacker-friendliness, I think this will be a long face-off.
- revorad 14y agoI will be surprised if Apple does not eventually allow programmers to program directly on iOS. I think they restrict it for now because of the limitations of the device. If they don't go that way, then I'm willing to bet on Android or any other more hacker-friendly platform to give them a run for their money.