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I need gcc, vim and a shell and a nice big screen with the ability to type easily, that's why I use old-fashioned PCs. I also don't like how all the pads and mo

by 16s 14y ago

I need gcc, vim and a shell and a nice big screen with the ability to type easily, that's why I use old-fashioned PCs. I also don't like how all the pads and mobile devices are locked-down and more focused on tracking user activity (EDIT: and selling stuff) than being a computing device. I guess I'm getting old.

berntb 14y ago
Use SSH (and AWS, or something). I agree on the big screen. (I checked the iPad SSH clients this spring, they seemed to be able to handle vim but not Emacs. Time to check again, I guess. WTF -- terminal emulators that don't let much of key codes for control etc through!?)
- zxoq 14y ago
  Apple does not provide any API for getting the state of the modifier keys on iOS. I really think this is something they need to loosen up about if they want people to go into the post-PC. We get the point Apple, you want users to be able to do everything an app offers without accessories. But that's orthogonal to replacing your PC with an iPad. (Especially since the private APIs are already there, they just need to allow them)
  - berntb 14y ago
    Thanks for information. I should have checked the APIs myself, but I couldn't dream the problem was that full keyboard state information didn't get through to apps. I guess it serves me right for using/loving a closed platform... :-( :-)
- bergie 14y ago
  Some tips for setting up an iPad development environment here: http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-...
vidarh 14y ago
> I need gcc, vim and a shell and a nice big screen with the ability to type easily, that's why I use old-fashioned PCs. You can get all that apart from the screen pretty much any Android tablet or phone these days, and the screen too on a large number of devices with either HDMI or MHL. > I also don't like how all the pads and mobile devices are locked-down and more focused on tracking user activity than being a computing device. Not nearly all are. My tablet came pre-rooted, and is known to be fairly easy to get plain Linux booting on.
- pc86 14y ago
  Which tablet is that? I've got an iPad, a Macbook Air and a custom-built PC. I think the next logical step is a tablet running Linux.
  - vidarh 14y ago
    Mine is a NATPC M009S, though the exact same board is available under any number of names. But I believe most Allwinner A10 based tablets at least should work reasonably fine at least with Debian and/or Ubuntu, assuming they have unlocked bootloaders (which seems to usually be the case for Chinese tablets). Check out http://a10linux.org/a10_intro.html http://a10linux.org/a10_intro.html which includes some information on suitable hardware.
  - freehunter 14y ago
    I don't know specifically what he is referring to, but the HP Touchpad is/was like this. Came with WebOS, which can be unlocked using a key combo that Palm/HP gives you on their website, and you can install an Ubuntu or Debian desktop chroot. Android runs very well on it also. I would guess that many Android tablets would have this capability.
  - cantankerous 14y ago
    A tablet running Linux...so maybe any of the Android tablets that you can root?
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  > > I need gcc, vim ... > You can get all that apart from the screen pretty much any Android tablet or phone these Hmm, how about a CPU powerful enough to not fall over when repeatedly compiling that enormous codebase and running your massively parallel number-crunching app? Tablets seem to be a pretty anemic when it comes to crunching (for good reason ... battery life, size, and cooling issues affect tablets/phones far more than they do a desktop)... Tablets are fun way to browse the web while sitting on the couch, but the small size that optimizes them for that usage comes with costs; surely there are many applications where it simply doesn't work out?
podperson 14y ago
It seems to me that iOS is not focused on tracking user activity. Some apps are but no-one forces you to use them (or enable their tracking). I'd be much more concerned about vanilla Android installations. On the other hand, Android devices (e.g. I own a Nexus 7) are not locked down at all (sometimes in a bad way -- I suspect something equivalent to the Bad Old Days of Windows malware is in the Android near future). Quite a few gcc/vim/shell-centric developers use iPads as terminals and they work very well for this (with or without a keyboard). That said, I'm typing this response on a Macbook Pro.
- EwanToo 14y ago
  By default, Android devices are locked down in 2 ways - you've not got root, and you can't install unsigned non-market apps (though trust of market apps is somewhat of a joke). You can obviously gain root, and you can easily tick the box to allow unknown sources, but it seems likely that 99% of Android consumers are not going to do this without a decent reason.

by 16s 14y ago

berntb 14y ago

Use SSH (and AWS, or something). I agree on the big screen. (I checked the iPad SSH clients this spring, they seemed to be able to handle vim but not Emacs. Time to check again, I guess. WTF -- terminal emulators that don't let much of key codes for control etc through!?)

zxoq 14y ago
Apple does not provide any API for getting the state of the modifier keys on iOS. I really think this is something they need to loosen up about if they want people to go into the post-PC. We get the point Apple, you want users to be able to do everything an app offers without accessories. But that's orthogonal to replacing your PC with an iPad. (Especially since the private APIs are already there, they just need to allow them)
- berntb 14y ago
  Thanks for information. I should have checked the APIs myself, but I couldn't dream the problem was that full keyboard state information didn't get through to apps. I guess it serves me right for using/loving a closed platform... :-( :-)
bergie 14y ago
Some tips for setting up an iPad development environment here: http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-for-an-ipad http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-...

vidarh 14y ago

> I need gcc, vim and a shell and a nice big screen with the ability to type easily, that's why I use old-fashioned PCs. You can get all that apart from the screen pretty much any Android tablet or phone these days, and the screen too on a large number of devices with either HDMI or MHL. > I also don't like how all the pads and mobile devices are locked-down and more focused on tracking user activity than being a computing device. Not nearly all are. My tablet came pre-rooted, and is known to be fairly easy to get plain Linux booting on.

pc86 14y ago
Which tablet is that? I've got an iPad, a Macbook Air and a custom-built PC. I think the next logical step is a tablet running Linux.
- vidarh 14y ago
  Mine is a NATPC M009S, though the exact same board is available under any number of names. But I believe most Allwinner A10 based tablets at least should work reasonably fine at least with Debian and/or Ubuntu, assuming they have unlocked bootloaders (which seems to usually be the case for Chinese tablets). Check out http://a10linux.org/a10_intro.html http://a10linux.org/a10_intro.html which includes some information on suitable hardware.
- freehunter 14y ago
  I don't know specifically what he is referring to, but the HP Touchpad is/was like this. Came with WebOS, which can be unlocked using a key combo that Palm/HP gives you on their website, and you can install an Ubuntu or Debian desktop chroot. Android runs very well on it also. I would guess that many Android tablets would have this capability.
- cantankerous 14y ago
  A tablet running Linux...so maybe any of the Android tablets that you can root?
snogglethorpe 14y ago
> > I need gcc, vim ... > You can get all that apart from the screen pretty much any Android tablet or phone these Hmm, how about a CPU powerful enough to not fall over when repeatedly compiling that enormous codebase and running your massively parallel number-crunching app? Tablets seem to be a pretty anemic when it comes to crunching (for good reason ... battery life, size, and cooling issues affect tablets/phones far more than they do a desktop)... Tablets are fun way to browse the web while sitting on the couch, but the small size that optimizes them for that usage comes with costs; surely there are many applications where it simply doesn't work out?

podperson 14y ago

It seems to me that iOS is not focused on tracking user activity. Some apps are but no-one forces you to use them (or enable their tracking). I'd be much more concerned about vanilla Android installations. On the other hand, Android devices (e.g. I own a Nexus 7) are not locked down at all (sometimes in a bad way -- I suspect something equivalent to the Bad Old Days of Windows malware is in the Android near future). Quite a few gcc/vim/shell-centric developers use iPads as terminals and they work very well for this (with or without a keyboard). That said, I'm typing this response on a Macbook Pro.

EwanToo 14y ago
By default, Android devices are locked down in 2 ways - you've not got root, and you can't install unsigned non-market apps (though trust of market apps is somewhat of a joke). You can obviously gain root, and you can easily tick the box to allow unknown sources, but it seems likely that 99% of Android consumers are not going to do this without a decent reason.