Touchqode: free code editor for Android and (soon) iOS | Hacker News Reader

Touchqode: free code editor for Android and (soon) iOS

touchqode.com

I never got the point behind wanting to have a code editor for phones...

1. Some of us on occasion prefer to program the way the Old Ones did--work out the complete solution to the problem, then conceive of the complete program in our head, then finally type to complete program into a computer. Only at that point do we try to actually run the program somewhere. Why not do this on the couch in comfort?

2. Code reading. I have a huge amount of code I need to read for work. Right now what I do is run it through a formatter that can turn it into HTML with nice syntax highlighting, and put it on a private web server. I can then read it on a mobile device (iPad) in comfort on my couch.

While doing this, I occasionally note minor errors or places that need minor improvements. If I were reading in a code editor I could go ahead and make the minor changes. This would be quite convenient.

I have found it quite useful on my 10" Android tablet for coding Javascript (especially when writing Project Euler solutions).

I could see it being a great app on Motorola's Atrix with dock (laptop or "desktop") once that comes out.

I sometimes had the need to fix some small bugs, or just trow down a few ideas I had while in a meeting or while skiing. Not that you're supposed to write a full app there.

In theory, it's a great idea, but watching that video made me cringe. With current input technology (tiny keyboards, either virtual or physical), it's too frustrating to type anything, let alone navigate around code.

For small fixes or notes, an ordinary text editor on your phone works as well as anything. For anything larger, just bring a small laptop.

I have been using touchqode for few months already (since I am developing it) and I have found it really useful - often just to get reminded some old code, browse project source from the couch on the galaxy tab, or start implementing some simple functionality.

Maybe what the video does not show is that most of the time you are viewing the code - and when it comes to writing you are done in few keystrokes. Plus autocomplete really helps.

Anyway thank you for feedback - the video presentation certainly needs improvement.

A Computer that is not selfhosting is almost a contradiction.

Is the license mentioned in this blog post http://www.touchqode.com/blog/009_analytics_and_licence_expl... available on the website anywhere?

If there are any onerous terms, I'd like to know what they are prior to installation.

Most recent license is of course visible at first start of application. Current license can be found here: http://www.touchqode.com/licences/touchqode_licence_1_0.htm

The blog post was related to some early user comments that were not specific. If you see anything you could find questionable write us an email and we will gladly explain.

thanks, there's nothing too unexpected here.

If I could get Xcode running on an iPad, I wouldn't need my laptop any longer.

So while this might not be quite self-hosting just yet, I think it's a really cool idea for the future. Some day we'll get there.

Can you type "fluently" on an iPad, enough to write long messages (i.e code) without getting irritated?

Not all the time. But my wireless keyboard + iPad + Xcode would work great en lieu of an otherwise expensive, bulky laptop.

The website advertises code suggestion and some other features, but the demo video just shows something that any text editor application could do. I think you might want to revisit it.

The video is from quite early version. Actually autocomplete (or code suggestion - I tend to use the terms interchangeably) is briefly visible when typing the name of method sayHello().

If you want to some more features in action you can check our other youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FScB9Rwfc - close captioned with some comments on what's going on.

However you have good point that the video could be better - presentation is definitely something we need to work on.

Just a quick comment after playing with this. I like it. The team doesn't seem to have any delusions about this being a primary code editor but it's good for those quick fixes and ideas. As such I went through the process of grabbing a source file off a client's site, making a couple quick changes, and pushing it back up. While I wouldn't want to do it all day it was far less painful than that process has the right to be on a mobile phone. It's a keeper for me.

That exactly captures the idea. And to make this process even easier I've just been testing experimental implementation of FTP client in touchqode. The new version will be probably coming within a week. And we have some more things up our sleeve.

Sounds good! Now look at my language templates suggestion I sent via the feedback ;)

Seems like a cool idea, interesting to see an app come out on Android first (probably good for the target market).

But I took one look at the synchronization setup http://www.touchqode.com/faq.htm#synchro and decided that it wasn't worth it to muck around with code on my phone. Perhaps if I had a tablet I'd put more effort into it, but would be great to see this simplified a bit!

This would be much easier to try out if I could give it my Github repo to pull down some code instead of having to sync files with my computer.

This looks like #5 on pg's Request for Startups: http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html

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