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Devs Might be Able to Write Software on iPad and iPhone with Xcode

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday April 25 2020, @10:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-build-it-they-will-code dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AnonymousCoward:

Devs might be able to write software on iPad and iPhone with Xcode:

macOS and iOS software developers will soon be able to code on an iPad or even iPhone, if an unconfirmed report is correct. iPadOS 14 and the iPhone equivalent will reportedly include support for Xcode, Apple's software development environment.

This report comes from Jon Prosser, founder of YouTube channel Front Page Tech, who recently correctly predicted the launch date of the 2020 iPhone SE. On Monday, Prosser said via Twitter "XCode is present on iOS / iPad OS 14. The implications there are HUGE."

I'm not gonna say that Final Cut is coming to iPad...

But XCode is present on iOS / iPad OS 14.

The implications there are HUGE.

Opens the door for "Pro" applications to come to iPad.

I mentioned this last week on a live stream, but figured it was worth the tweet ‍♂️

— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) April 20, 2020

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2020, @11:55AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2020, @11:55AM (#986891)

    When all you have is a tiny screen with no keyboard, everything looks like a nail.
    Wake me when they have Xcode running on a Gameboy

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  • (Score: 2) by theluggage on Saturday April 25 2020, @01:47PM (1 child)

    by theluggage (1797) on Saturday April 25 2020, @01:47PM (#986934)

    Keyboard and mouse/trackpad support on iPad is improving - Apple have just released a new keyboard + trackpad for the iPad Pro - and the iPad supports external displays (just mirroring by default, but individual applications can support a 'second screen' - an obvious option for XCode would be to have the iPad screen for the app being developed and the second screen for code).

    I wouldn't choose an iPad as a development machine for anything more than a fart app, but recent iPad OS developments are making it into more of a computer than a giant phone, so this is more feasible than you might think. Being able to "self-develop" would be a major step towards proper-comuter-ness for the iPad.

    I suspect Apple are currently hedging their bets between moving the MacBooks to ARM processors vs. letting iPads gradually replace Macs. iPads/iPhones are more profitable, but currently Apple needs Macs as iOS development machines...

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by purdy on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:52PM

      by purdy (1863) on Saturday April 25 2020, @02:52PM (#986953)

      I think Apple might do this for three reasons:

      1) There is a (small) use case for having XCode on a phone or tablet. There are times when you just want to make a minor bug fix and could even do it on your phone.
      2) I think Apple is going to be pushing Marzipan/Catalyst very, very hard at WWDC as a way of getting more applications available for future ARM-based Macs. I know you can just recompile existing Mac apps to ARM, but I strongly suspect the ARM-based Macs are going to run a version of Mac OS X that's a lot closer to iPadOS than Catalina.
      3) If XCode becomes a Marzipan/Catalyst app, it's pretty hard to say "But my app is too complicated to run on an iPad" (I'm looking at you Adobe)