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Comment by laurentdc | Hacker News Reader

This topic comes up every month or so, and there's always this catch:

> we need to first create a remote workstation which we can start using as our main development machine.

A dumb terminal isn't a development machine. That's like saying "Using my DEC VT100 terminal to develop in Go", let me just hook it up to an actual computer

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> A dumb terminal isn't a development machine. That's like saying "Using my DEC VT100 terminal to develop in Go", let me just hook it up to an actual compute

And to be clear: The iPad Pro does not even achieve the level of "dumb terminal": It does not pass control sequences intelligently, so even running remote emacs is not possible without major remappings (and the remappings are so major as to reduce functionality.)

That said, the iPadPro is good for what it's good for. I love having a portable library, and note taking with the pen is kinda nice. It just doesn't achieve the level of development machine for any intelligent definition of the word "development".

There is a way of emulating an x86 machine on ios now

https://ish.app/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18430031

Still doesn't convince me to swap my 8 core ryzen 1700 laptop with 32gb ram and 1.5tb ssd and a RX580 for an ipad pro.

What laptop is this?

I think it's a 8 core ryzen 1700 laptop with 32gb ram and 1.5tb ssd and a RX580

A simple google reveals that the ROG Strix GL720ZC has exactly those specs.

I came here to say the same thing. This article got me all excited. I made my coffee and sat down for the long read. And the first damn section killed all my excitement.

It drives me god damn bonkers that the iPad is such an unbelievably powerful piece of hardware... that is practically unusable due to arbitrary OS limitations. Unusable for certain types of tasks that is.

Le sigh.

I dream of the day when an iPad can dual boot iOS and OSX.

OP here: Thanks for making the coffee at least :) I also wish iOS wouldn't be limiting and Apple would allows us to develop locally. I think we're getting there slowly and I'm looking forward to that day.

I still read the whole thing. You know, after ranting on HN for a minute. Thanks for sharing! :)

This is not a very good argument. I do my development work on my company issued macbook, but its not like I'm doing my work locally. My several thousand dollar macbook pro acts as a terminal interface for me for a HUGE proportion of my work. All my code is developed/built/run/tested on remote machines and my laptop is just a fancy interface to them.

Backend developer then? Even in that case I would need IntelliJ idea/visual Studio/ whatever IDE, unless you are just working on “small” projects under 500kloc where vi is maybe enough...

There is web based visual studio at https://coder.com

I use C9 which is another web based IDE.. it doesn't have all the power features of a jetbrains ide but it is nifty and should meet the needs of most developers.

Lots of options outside of vi!

VS Code and Visual Studio are different beasts, though.

Hold my beer...

In all seriousness, I use (neo)vim as my full-time editor for several very large projects.

Devops/Secops/ITops ppl seem to fall into this usage pattern.

i assumed OP is talking about "development" machine implying some code writing.

Not only code writing, but debugging, compiling, testing, deploying to physical devices via usb, coding thermal printer, barcode scanners or other input hardware support support, and the list goes on...

It all depends on the type of work you do. I work on the latest top of the line macbook pro issued by work as well, and for me it's too slow. Running the company's php app along with all the other dependencies like MySQL/Redis/etc takes a significant amount of resources. All development is done locally on the dev laptops, bugs are reproduced and fixed on local dev laptops. At this point I almost wish that my laptop was a terminal so that I could have access to more resources like RAM (currently at 16 GB).

Exactly the reason why we've started setting up remote (in-house) servers for devs - for the cost of the latest MBP you can buy a server machine with tons of ram that will run all you services super smooth with any old laptop that can run your editor.

32GB of RAM is top for the MBP, not 16.

Edit: OP said he had the latest top of the line. Latest, top of the line has 32.

Only for the new models.

Oh sweet, I am gonna ask for an upgrade then. Thanks for the info.

And if I wanted a dumb terminal I'd much prefer a MacBook Air, with its sturdier keyboard and at least the option of having it not be a dumb terminal sometimes

12” MacBook is a near perfect portable machine when upgraded to Mac specs and paired with a new Anker GaN 30w charger.

Agreed. I would be interested in seeing Samsung DeX reviewed for development as DeX can run regular Ubuntu.

This is nice, can it also run it without any extra stuff attached? I assume it will only run ARM software?

Yeah according to https://www.linuxondex.com/ :

"To operate properly, packages (apps and programs) must be built for ARM 64-bit and must comply with Android security policy."

Link for the curious: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/solutions/samsung-dex/

Ubuntu: https://www.linuxondex.com/ "Linux on DeX beta is only supported on Galaxy Note9 and Tab S4"

I'm thinking about getting a Tab S4 so I can play with it.

The input methods available do matter, and affect the practicality of doing tasks pretty substantially. And a great deal of development involves the building/running of code happening remotely anyway. Although in this case all of the editing seems to be happening on the VM as well, so it's more of a pure dumb terminal.

Yea but if you phrase it that way you don't get on the front page of HN and get all that sweet sweet self promotion marketing goodness.

For me, it 80% is. But I am the kind of a person, who edits his .git/config in VS Code through vim in the embedded terminal :)

Are you referring to the vim emulation plugin in VS Code?

He/She's running actual vim in the VS Code terminal.

Yes. Few times I even started vim in tmux inside VS Code terminal :)

The device you're developing with is a developer machine. There's even people working on Citrix remote desktop Windows systems who have nothing but a thin client who develop software as their daily business. Who cares if you're building your application locally or somewhere remotely.

Ad soon as I saw the stand and keyboard I had exactly the same thought.

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