4 ms·

It's a sad state of affairs that the iPads are so incredibly powerful, with the exact same silicon as MacBooks, and yet to do real development work on one you h

It's a sad state of affairs that the iPads are so incredibly powerful, with the exact same silicon as MacBooks, and yet to do real development work on one you have to reduce it to the worlds most expensive thin client connected to a real computer somewhere else.

thomasingalls 2y ago
> thin client I sometimes wonder if the ipad was made just for this pun to eventually become reality.
layer8 2y ago
Not to mention being the world’s thinnest thin client.
p4bl0 2y ago
Even Chromebooks, which are actually supposed to be thin clients and which are quite locked up compared to a "normal" laptop with a standard OS (Linux, Windows, macOS), are way more capable devices for development work (among other things, being able to offer an actual Linux environment [1]), while being far less expensive than an iPad. [1] https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439
- jsheard 2y ago
  It got me wondering why they don't do something akin to Microsoft's WSL which lets you run a persistent Linux VM in the background, but of course that would loosen Apples grip over the software ecosystem by letting users run arbitrary code from outside of the App Store. Heaven forbid people start making local Linux apps which spawn a web UI accessible through Safari. That's also why they will probably never do an iPad "Pro Mode" which boots into full blown macOS.
  - tonymet 2y ago
    it would be great to cmd-alt-9 on an Ipad and open up a virtual terminal that is running directly on darwin, allowing any shell or homebrew app. it would go a long way.
    - transpute 2y ago
      Instead we have the hand-warming emulator iSH.
redbell 2y ago
Here's a submission on this topic that was trending on HN about a year ago with +500 comments: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36530607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36530607)
coolius 2y ago
Shameless plug but try my app CodeBrew, a 100% local Java IDE: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/codebrew-ide-for-java/id6475267297?l=en-GB https://apps.apple.com/de/app/codebrew-ide-for-java/id647526...
bee_rider 2y ago
I wonder… the reason iPads are limited like this, ostensibly, is that Apple doesn’t want us to run scripts on them, right? But can a linter run locally? That would be nice I guess. Also since so many languages target WASM nowadays, could an IDE at least compile to that, and then run some tests locally?
- transpute 2y ago
  iSH can run (slowly) shell/python scripts.
radicality 2y ago
The hardware is indeed powerful. The other day, I attempted playing a 8k30fps HEVC file (around 400Mb/s), and my new iPad Pro M4 has no issues with it, decodes and plays it well! And my MacBook M1 Max 64gb actually really struggles to play the file, often stutters and scrubbing in Quiclook is kinda unusable. So yeah also thinking whether the iPad Pro was a good purchase, because of how limited the software options are.
kcplate 2y ago
It’s a pain in the ass to use a hammer as a screwdriver despite both being tools made of steel.
- Gud 2y ago
  Your analogy is flawed, because an iPad could absolutely be used as a development box if it wasn’t for artificial constraints.
  - kcplate 2y ago
    Hardly. The device by its very design and form factor was designed for information consumption as its main purpose. Everything that allows the device to be used for information creation today is an afterthought to the initial design and purpose and therefore the experience you are seeking will be handicapped by the initial design and purpose of the device. If a hammer didn’t have the “artificial constraint” placed on it of missing a standard slot head or Phillips head driver (and hammer manufacturers can clearly install them if they chose to) it could be a more multi-use tool than just a hammer. Likewise, screwdriver manufacturers would only need to add a hard striking surface to their tools for them to be also used to drive nails too. I had a multitool hammer/screwdriver combo once. It sucked as both a hammer and a screwdriver and I found myself always reaching for my actual hammer for driving nails, or screwdrivers for driving screws.
    - Gud 2y ago
      Yes, those are inherent constraints which makes your analogy flawed. There is no reason(except greed) for why an iPad has to be locked down.
      - kcplate 2y ago
        But is the iPad actually locked down? There are developer tools available. If they don’t meet standard is there anything actually stopping developers from writing a better one? Seems to me the big complaint is not that you can’t write code on it, but that it doesn’t run MacOS. But that brings me back to the original intent of the product—It’s form factor is designed for information consumption and only recently with the introduction of the M-chips on the device, it would have made a pretty shitty MacOS device in prior versions. So recent tech has improved the screwdriver so that it could be used effectively as a hammer too, but I don’t think you can realistically say it was greed that caused Stanley tools to create both hammers and screwdrivers before the tech changed to combine them. They were two separate tools because they needed to be.

thomasingalls 2y ago

> thin client I sometimes wonder if the ipad was made just for this pun to eventually become reality.

layer8 2y ago

Not to mention being the world’s thinnest thin client.

p4bl0 2y ago

Even Chromebooks, which are actually supposed to be thin clients and which are quite locked up compared to a "normal" laptop with a standard OS (Linux, Windows, macOS), are way more capable devices for development work (among other things, being able to offer an actual Linux environment [1]), while being far less expensive than an iPad. [1] https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439 https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439

jsheard 2y ago
It got me wondering why they don't do something akin to Microsoft's WSL which lets you run a persistent Linux VM in the background, but of course that would loosen Apples grip over the software ecosystem by letting users run arbitrary code from outside of the App Store. Heaven forbid people start making local Linux apps which spawn a web UI accessible through Safari. That's also why they will probably never do an iPad "Pro Mode" which boots into full blown macOS.
- tonymet 2y ago
  it would be great to cmd-alt-9 on an Ipad and open up a virtual terminal that is running directly on darwin, allowing any shell or homebrew app. it would go a long way.
  - transpute 2y ago
    Instead we have the hand-warming emulator iSH.

redbell 2y ago

Here's a submission on this topic that was trending on HN about a year ago with +500 comments: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36530607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36530607)

coolius 2y ago

Shameless plug but try my app CodeBrew, a 100% local Java IDE: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/codebrew-ide-for-java/id6475267297?l=en-GB https://apps.apple.com/de/app/codebrew-ide-for-java/id647526...

bee_rider 2y ago

I wonder… the reason iPads are limited like this, ostensibly, is that Apple doesn’t want us to run scripts on them, right? But can a linter run locally? That would be nice I guess. Also since so many languages target WASM nowadays, could an IDE at least compile to that, and then run some tests locally?

transpute 2y ago
iSH can run (slowly) shell/python scripts.

radicality 2y ago

The hardware is indeed powerful. The other day, I attempted playing a 8k30fps HEVC file (around 400Mb/s), and my new iPad Pro M4 has no issues with it, decodes and plays it well! And my MacBook M1 Max 64gb actually really struggles to play the file, often stutters and scrubbing in Quiclook is kinda unusable. So yeah also thinking whether the iPad Pro was a good purchase, because of how limited the software options are.

kcplate 2y ago

It’s a pain in the ass to use a hammer as a screwdriver despite both being tools made of steel.

Gud 2y ago
Your analogy is flawed, because an iPad could absolutely be used as a development box if it wasn’t for artificial constraints.
- kcplate 2y ago
  Hardly. The device by its very design and form factor was designed for information consumption as its main purpose. Everything that allows the device to be used for information creation today is an afterthought to the initial design and purpose and therefore the experience you are seeking will be handicapped by the initial design and purpose of the device. If a hammer didn’t have the “artificial constraint” placed on it of missing a standard slot head or Phillips head driver (and hammer manufacturers can clearly install them if they chose to) it could be a more multi-use tool than just a hammer. Likewise, screwdriver manufacturers would only need to add a hard striking surface to their tools for them to be also used to drive nails too. I had a multitool hammer/screwdriver combo once. It sucked as both a hammer and a screwdriver and I found myself always reaching for my actual hammer for driving nails, or screwdrivers for driving screws.
  - Gud 2y ago
    Yes, those are inherent constraints which makes your analogy flawed. There is no reason(except greed) for why an iPad has to be locked down.
    - kcplate 2y ago
      But is the iPad actually locked down? There are developer tools available. If they don’t meet standard is there anything actually stopping developers from writing a better one? Seems to me the big complaint is not that you can’t write code on it, but that it doesn’t run MacOS. But that brings me back to the original intent of the product—It’s form factor is designed for information consumption and only recently with the introduction of the M-chips on the device, it would have made a pretty shitty MacOS device in prior versions. So recent tech has improved the screwdriver so that it could be used effectively as a hammer too, but I don’t think you can realistically say it was greed that caused Stanley tools to create both hammers and screwdrivers before the tech changed to combine them. They were two separate tools because they needed to be.