From 682eb6efa44e759dfa9d73786e78659caaa81023 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christine Dodrill Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:48:06 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] blog: add first draft of coding on an iPad Mostly stream of consciousness first draft material. Please rip this to shreds. --- ...coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown | 130 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 130 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown diff --git a/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown b/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6867f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +--- +title: Coding on an iPad +date: 2018-04-14 +--- + +# Coding on an iPad + +As people find out, I am an avid user of Emacs for a lot of my professional and +personal coding. I have things set up such that the center of my development +environment is a shell (eshell), and most of my interactions are with emacs +buffers from there. Recently when I purchased my iPad Pro (10.5", 512 GB, LTE, +with Pencil and Smart Keyboard) I was very surprised to find out that there was +such a large group of people who did a lot of their professional work from an +iPad. + +The iPad is a remarkably capable device in its own right, even without the apps +that let me do things like commit to git or edit text files in git repos. Out +of the gate, if I did not work in a primarily code-focused industry, I am +certain that I could use an iPad for all of my work tasks and I would be more +than happy with it. With just Notes, iWork and the other built-in apps even, +you can do literally anything a consumer would want out of a computing device. + +As things get more complicated though, you begin to want to be able to do +things like write code from it. My Macbook died recently, and as such I've +taken the time to try to get to learn how the iPad workflow is a little more +hands-on (this post is being written from my iPad even). + +So far I have written the following projects either mostly or completely from +this iPad: + +- https://github.com/withinsoft/ventriloquist +- https://github.com/Xe/arrival +- https://git.xeserv.us/xena/register +- https://github.com/Xe/when-then-zen (more on this in another blogpost) + +I seem to have naturally developed two basic workflows for developing from this +iPad: my "traditional" way of ssh-ing into a remote server via [Prompt][prompt] +and then using emacs inside tmux and the local way of using [Texastic][texastic] +for editing text and then [Working Copy][workingcopy] to interact with Git +along with [Workflow][workflow] and some custom JSON HTTP services to allow me +to hack things together as needed. + +## The Traditional Way + +Honestly, there's not much exciting here, thankfully. The only interesting +thing in this regard (besides the lack of curses mouse support REALLY being +apparent given the fact that the entire device is a screen) is that the lack +of the escape key on the smart keyboard means I need to hit command-grave +instead. This has been fairly easy to remap my brain to, the fact that the +iPad keyboard lacks the room for a touchpad seems to be enough to give my brain +a hint that I need to hit that instead of escape. + +![An example workflow screenshot with Prompt](https://i.imgur.com/owGRo5x.png) + +This feels like developing on any other device, just this device is much more +portable and I can't test changes locally. It enforces you keeping all of your +active project in development in the cloud. With this workflow, you can +literally stop what you were doing on your desktop, then resume it on the iPad +at Taco Bell. A friend of mine linked [his blogpost on his cloud-based workflow][ceruleiscloud] +and this iPad driven development feels like a nice natural extension to it. + +It's the tools I know and love, just available when and wherever I am thanks to +the LTE. + +## iPad-local Development + +This surprised me just about as much as this header is surpsing you to read it. +Apple has done a phenomenal job at setting up a secure device. It is hard to +run arbitrary unsigned code on it. + +However, development is more than just running the code, development is also +writing the code. For writing the code, I've been loving Texastic and Working +Copy: + +![](https://i.imgur.com/5RVt52w.png) + +![](https://i.imgur.com/XTWoOAY.jpg) + +Texastic is pretty exciting. It's a simple text editor, but it also supports +reading both arbitrary files from the iCloud drive and arbitrary files from +programs like Working Copy. In order to open a file up in Texastic, I +navigate over to it in Working Copy and then hit the "Share" button and tap +on "Open in Texastic". By default this option is pretty deep down the menu, so +I have moved it all the way up to the beginning of the list. Then I literally +just type stuff in and every so often the changes get saved back to Working +Copy. Then I commit when I'm done and push the code away. + +This is almost precisely my existing workflow with the shell, just with +Working Copy and Texastic instead. + +There are downsides to this though. The inability to test your code as +effortlessly as it is to write it quickly becomes frustrating unless you have +CI set up and people don't care about a larger commit history (or if you rebase +changes onto master when merging). There is no code completion, gofmt or +goimports. There doesn't seem to be any advanced manipulation or linting tools +available for Texastic either. I understand that there are fundamental +limitations involved when developing these kinds of mobile apps, but I wish +there was something I could set up on a server of mine that would let me at +least get some linting or formatting tooling running for this. + +Workflow is very promising, but at the time of writing this article I haven't +really had the time to fully grok it yet. So far I have some glue that lets me +do things like share URL's/articles to a Discord chatroom via a webhook (the +iPad Discord client causes an amazing amount of battery life reduction for me), +find the currently playing song on Apple Music on Youtube, copy an article into +my Notes, turn the currently active thing into a PDF and some more that I've +been picking up and tinkering with as things go on. + +There are some limitations in Workflow as far as I've seen. I don't seem to be +able to log arbitrary health events like mindfulness meditation into Workflow. +I was kinda hoping that Workflow would let me do that, I've been wanting to log +my mindfulness time with the Health app, but I can't find an app that acts as a +dumb timer without an account for web synching. I'd love to have a few quick +action workflows for doing things like logging 10 minutes of anapana, metta or +a half hour of more focused work. + +## Conclusion + +The iPad is a fantastic developer box given its limitations. If you just want +to get the code or blogpost out, this device will help you focus into the task +at hand (literally) and just hammer out the functionality. You just need to get +the idea and then you just act on it. + +You just do thing and it does thing. + +[prompt]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prompt-2/id917437289?mt=8 +[texastic]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textastic-code-editor-6/id1049254261?mt=8 +[workingcopy]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/working-copy/id896694807?mt=8 +[workflow]: https://www.workflow.is +[ceruleiscloud]: https://elliot.pro/blog/working-in-the-cloud.html \ No newline at end of file