SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the if-you-build-it-they-will-code dept.
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
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday April 25 2020, @07:04PM (14 children)
As a dev, what I want are:
- At least 3 good screens (2 is tolerable, 1 large one is tough).
- A comfortable keyboard and mouse. Ideally, both wireless so I can do things like lean back in my chair with a keyboard in my lap.
- As much memory and CPU horsepower as I can reasonably get, to speed up interpreter / compilation / test-running time.
Coding on an iPad or even worse a smartphone gives me none of that, and possibly a case of gorilla arm. It slows down my typing speed to the point where I lose track of the logic I was trying to type. And if the plan is to make coding more visual, that's been tried and failed many many times because it turns out that E-R and UML diagrams and such don't actually do a good job of clearly modeling anything complicated, and anything simple enough that those diagrams make sense is simple enough for programmers to understand without the diagrams.
This sounds a lot to me like an idea that was spawned from the mind of somebody who has never written anything resembling a complex application.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 25 2020, @07:19PM (7 children)
You are not the typical use case for an iPad, so the obvious answer is to not buy one. Gee that was difficult.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Saturday April 25 2020, @09:13PM (6 children)
His (valid) point is that his needs for programming are pretty typical. So while that is not the typical use case for an ipad it does raise the question -- who exactly WOULD be interested in programming on an ipad? Because anyone interested in developing software is going to have broadly similar preferences. I frankly have no idea how i managed programming back when all i had was a 15" CRT, but I know a big part of it is that the project specs, library documentation, language references, OS API documentation, debugger reference, etc, etc was all on readily available on paper. Now that's that's all online so i need more monitors to have that stuff open.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday April 26 2020, @02:57PM (5 children)
During the present pandemic, there isn't much use case for programming on a portable device. I guess someone who owns an iPad and keyboard and happens to live in a state whose stay at home order doesn't consider businesses supplying equipment with which to work from home to be essential might consider an iPad better than nothing.
But should the present pandemic end, someone who has a day job and a contract programming gig might want to program for the latter on a portable device while riding public transit to and from the former. Likewise a high school student who received an iPad or iPhone as a gift, does not own a Mac, and needs to complete their homework assignments for introduction to programming class.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday April 27 2020, @05:29PM (4 children)
In the first case you'd just bring the office computer home from work. My wife did.
The gig worker would be better off with a laptop.
The high school student scenario is too stretched to bother with -- a high school intro programming course that requires you use Apple xCode, but doesn't provide devices, attended by students too poor to have their own. Only a ridiculous private school would require apple devices and not provide them, and if you are attending one then an ipad you received as a gift isn't the limit of your resources.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday May 02 2020, @01:46AM (3 children)
The course requires students to have some device capable of hosting an IDE that can edit, build, and run programs written in the appropriate language. It need not be Xcode. But until fairly recently (Swift Playgrounds, released September 2016), Apple has opposed any sort of IDE.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday May 02 2020, @11:00PM (2 children)
If you take away the xcode requirement than pretty much *anything* will work. I mean cloud IDEs are thing... visual studio online, eclipse cloud, cloud9, codenvy,python fiddle, etc etc...
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:09AM (1 child)
How much would it cost for a district to host a cloud IDE for its students' use?
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Sunday May 03 2020, @11:12AM
https://www.developerdrive.com/9-best-free-cloud-ides/ [developerdrive.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Saturday April 25 2020, @10:07PM (1 child)
As a dev, what I want are:
- One decent sized screen. I can't look at two screens at the same time (or even the entire screen for a large monitor), and using a good windows manager makes switching views much easier than straining my neck.
- A comfortable keyboard. Mouse is optional.
- Average CPU and memory. If I'm using an energy hog language like C++/Rust (which I usually don't), I would just offload the compile to a cloud machine, which spares my own hardware from the extreme wear of compiling.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday April 25 2020, @10:50PM
I find that multiple monitors don't involve straining my neck in the slightest: I'm usually far enough away that switching from one to another is a turn of maybe 15 degrees, and also in most work spaces I have a swivel chair.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Sunday April 26 2020, @09:23AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Sunday April 26 2020, @02:43PM (2 children)
I'd never buy an iPad or an iPhone to begin with, but I do think it's good to at least have the option of compiling code on mobile devices. I agree with you it's a very uncomfortable interface for a developer and so hard to see why it would be anyone's first choice. However, I can see a use case for someone desperate to throw together a bit of code whilst on the move, in an environment where a small laptop would still be too bulky, heavy or vulnerable to bring out. Coding on a camping vacation, perhaps?
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Sunday April 26 2020, @03:04PM
Then the real problem is that 10.1" laptops were discontinued in December 2012 in favor of tablets, which at the time had a higher profit margin than netbooks. When netbooks returned, they had grown to 11.6".
I was thinking more along the lines of coding while riding a bus or other transit to and from school or to and from a day job.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Sunday April 26 2020, @04:04PM
A key aspect of a camping vacation, as somebody who has taken many of them, is that you leave at home anything you'd need to do that one little super-emergency thing that your boss called you up about, which will take you at least 4 hours of what HR will still consider a vacation day.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.