diff --git a/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown b/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown index a6867f3..bbb14c7 100644 --- a/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown +++ b/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ 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 +As people notice, I am an avid user of Emacs for most 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, @@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ 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. +that let me 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 +As projects and commitments get more complicated though, you begin to want to +be able to 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). @@ -36,9 +36,9 @@ this iPad: 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. +for editing text, [Working Copy][workingcopy] to interact with Git, and [Workflow][workflow] +and some custom JSON HTTP services to allow me to hack things together as +needed. ## The Traditional Way @@ -64,13 +64,13 @@ 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. +Of all of the things to say going into owning an iPad, I never thought I'd say +that I like the experience of developing from it locally. 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: +_writing_ it. For writing the code, I've been loving Texastic and Working Copy: ![](https://i.imgur.com/5RVt52w.png) @@ -88,10 +88,10 @@ 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 +There are downsides to this though. Not being able to test your code locally +means you need to commit frequently. This can lead to cluttered commit graphs +which some people will complain about. Rebasing your commits before merging +branches is a viable workaround however. 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 @@ -103,23 +103,26 @@ 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 +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. +able to log arbitrary health events like mindfulness meditation via Workflow as +the Health app doesn't seem to let you do that directly. 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 syncing. I'd love to have a few quick action +workflows for 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. +to get the code or blogpost out of your head and into the computer, this device +will help you focus into the task at hand so you can just hammer out the +functionality. You just need to get the idea and then you just act on it. +There's just fundamentally fewer distractions when you are actively working +with it. You just do thing and it does thing.