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Coding On iPad Pro_
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Feb 6, 2024
"Coding On iPad Pro" is a video showcasing the capabilities of using an iPad Pro for coding purposes. The video likely demonstrates how developers can utilize various coding applications available on the iPad Pro, such as text editors, integrated development environments (IDEs), and coding platforms. It may highlight the functionality of the iPad Pro's touchscreen interface, Apple Pencil compatibility, and multitasking features for coding tasks. Additionally, the video might discuss the advantages and limitations of coding on an iPad Pro compared to traditional desktop or laptop setups. Overall, the video aims to inform and inspire viewers about the possibility of using an iPad Pro as a viable tool for coding and software development.
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0:00
When I travel, I don't want to take my laptop with me
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And my M1 iPad Pro just makes more sense because of its smaller form factor
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I can use it to watch videos, edit photos, and I'm wondering how will it work for doing
0:11
software development on the go. I definitely like the M1 chip in the iPad Pro
0:16
It definitely gives a lot more power than previous iPads that I've owned
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So let's take a look and see how this works out. Trying to figure this out took me down several rabbit holes before
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I finally landed on three approaches that could work for someone who
0:29
who wants to use the iPad Pro for software development. The first approach was to do everything natively on the device
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so I did what I normally do, download an editor or IDE, try to install Node, get all the dependencies set up for front-end development
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There were a bunch of editors. I looked at TouchCode Pro, coder, code editor
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and finally landed on TextTastic, which, for my preferences, felt like the better option
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Now it was time to figure out how to install Git client, Node. Node.js, and all of those other dependencies
0:56
Working copy seemed like the way to go for a Git client, But trying to set up node is where things got really annoying
1:02
There were a lot of different roundabout ways to get this working, but there had to be a simpler way
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Fortunately, while looking for the answer, I came across another IDE called PlayJS
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and I just like the look and fill this much better than TextTastic
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And more importantly, it's really easy to get a React application set up
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and you can run a server and handle all of the dependencies all within this one application instead of trying to piece it together from a bunch of other applications The ID itself isn totally clear
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You have a bunch of icons that don't make a ton of sense. And I just had to kind of click around try and figure out what does what
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But I did find out that it does actually have developer tools unlike a lot of the other options
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And that is really cool and helpful. Though it's not going to be as good as your Chrome developer tools
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And that's something that I will definitely miss. The second approach to coding on an iPad is to go 100% online using a tool called Replit
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This is an online editor that lets you do everything through the browser, including pushing
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to your GitHub account. It's nice because you don't have to download anything. It was super easy to set up
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And one of the advantages of going down this approach is that because you aren't storing
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anything locally, you could get away with an iPad that has less storage if you needed to
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The downside is you've got to be connected to the internet. So that could limit where you're actually able to use this application
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or you gotta have a really good data plan. Another con would be that if Replit had an outage
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you're stuck until they're back online. You're also kind of stuck in their way of doing things
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That said, it's still a very viable option. Before I get to the third option, I also wanted to mention that with the newer iPads
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with the USBC port, you can easily connect your iPad to a monitor to get a bigger screen
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There are some scaling issues, which make it a less clean solution than using the laptop But hey a bigger screen is a bigger screen especially since I opted to go for the smaller iPad Pro The third option to consider is connecting to another device remotely One of the ways you could do this is by S into another machine and there are a bunch of different ways that you can go about doing that
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But I settled on using an app called Jump Desktop, which is easy to set up and has worked well for my needs
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You install an application on the iPad and on another device, and you connect, and you're good to go
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The huge plus here is that you're able to connect directly to your work computer. And so you're able to use the same operating system
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and tools and applications that you're already used to. This is really great when it comes to using Chrome's developer tools
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and also when you're trying to do responsive design, it is just so much easier
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And I also really appreciate having a better file system to be working with
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File app is okay on the iPad for smaller things, like if you're just doing some pages, files
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and things like that, but if you're gonna be managing it, a lot of files, it just gets kind of clunky
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The downside of this approach is that you need a second machine and it needs to be running. If there's a power outage or
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your laptop crashes, then you could be out of luck for a while
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Something else to consider is that if you're interested in just learning JavaScript without
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HTML and CSS or maybe some other standalone programming language, there is technically an
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alternative to option number one. You could get by using something like play.js to learn
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JavaScript but there are dedicated applications like JavaScript anywhere and there other versions for different programming languages But for actual professional front end development I personally prefer going with Jump Desktop over PlayJS and Replit
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And that is mostly due to the continuity of being able to work with the same tools
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that I already use on a day-to-day basis. That said, if I only owned an iPad
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I would actually lean towards PlayJS and try and keep everything locally on the iPad
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That way I'm not dependent on another website to be up and running, and I'm not having to worry about latency issues
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or any other issues with the web connection. But here are the main reasons why I'll only do software development
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on my iPad Pro as a last resort. I already have a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro
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that I use at my desk with an external monitor when I'm writing code. So it really doesn't make sense for me
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to have my iPad there and to use it over the MacBook Pro
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For that reason, the iPad Pro is only going to be used on the go. And it's a small screen
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and the touch keyboard is just a no-go when you're using it for a lot of time
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So really you need an external keyboard to make this a decent programming experience
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I don't use my iPad Pro for a ton of typing, so I really don't want to pay the premium
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to get a magic keyboard for the iPad. And I definitely don't want to tow it around another keyboard
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because at that point I might as well just bring my laptop. It was a fun experiment, but I won't be ditching
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my MacBook Pro any time soon. You should check out the short video up here
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on how well I like the M1 MacBook Pro for programming, and I'll see you in the next one. Leeds
#Development Tools
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics
#Laptops & Notebooks
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