Show HN: DroidEdit, a source code editor for Android | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: DroidEdit, a source code editor for Android

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52 pointsarestivo26 comments

Tired of having to deal with my laptop battery, I decided to get a Transformer Prime. The only thing I needed to get rid of my laptop was a decent source code editor. And thus DroidEdit was born.

I was in the same boat, dying to get production use out of my transformer and only drag out the laptop for heavy development.

Although this look like a great app, I could not be more pleased with Terminal IDE. Open the app, "start the system" and you have yourself 4 linux terminals with a serious amount of functionality. I keep my tablet unrooted for google play movie use, and do not even notice while in the terminal. You may want to give it a try...

Looks very promising. Two questions:

* CoffeeScript support

* DropBox is nice, but GitHub would be the thing that would really make this rock

(another happy Transformer Prime user, now doing a little hacking via chrooted Ubuntu and VIM)

> but GitHub would be the thing that would really make this rock

no. not 'github', but 'vcs support': git, mercurial, others. where it's hosted doesn't matter.

Well, sure, but with GitHub you could additionally give a very easy way to browse and clone the repositories you have access to. So: a UI instead of writing repo URLs manually.

I agree vcs is important

No CoffeeScript support for now but I'm working on a way to allow users to add their own syntax highlighting schemes.

Although not natively, you can configure DroidEdit to use git as long as you edit your code remotely via SFTP. There's a post where I explain how to do it here: http://droidedit.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/using-git-with-dro...

Ok, CoffeeScript would make me buy this :-)

SFTP is fine, but wouldn't this mean I need to be constantly online? Makes hacking in train harder... Though I suppose I could use this by SSHing to my chroot.

You only need to be online to open and save the file. You can switch apps and go back to DroidEdit and still have your file open, even if Android decides to kill DroidEdit in a low memory situation.

That is a good start. But since most of my projects consist of many files, still not fully optimal. Though, having the chrooted Ubuntu there helps with testing the code I wrote, too.

I am also working on a set of iOS tools that allow you to view, edit, and commit your Github projects on the go.

If you are interested in coding from your iPad or iPhone, check out http://jackalope.me to sign up for early access.

Great work here arestivo. I have been recommending this app to a couple android using friends.

One of the reviews says-

Really? This app can't be used seriously becouse some smart guy put commercial on the half of the screen. Cheap, really cheap and they say it's free...

Is this accurate?

Trolls will troll... The free version has the standard admob sized ad. Together with the softkeyboard it will leave only space for a few lines of code if you have a small screen.

However, the paid version doesn't have ads and it is primarily targeted for tablets. On the phone, I imagine it is useful to do a small edit here and there or to show code to someone.

Thank you for providing a paid version (too many apps don't even allow that option), but I would suggest getting rid of the free version altogether as it cheapens your product and, quite honestly, the Android platform. It will merely bring "reviews" like the quoted.

This is not the sort of app that fits the free profile, and anyone unwilling to pay the token amount isn't a real user, and there is little to no chance you'll make any significant amount on the ads in it. Make this the trial version -- no ads -- with some sort of arbitrary limit.

That thought has crossed my mind several times. The idea of the free app is just to allow users to test the product. Ads definitively don't pay for the amount of time invested.

My thoughts exactly. This is just the thing I've been looking for.

No one has mentioned Terminal IDE which supports vim, and git.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusr...

This is cool!

People who are interested in this should also take a look at AIDE, which can compile and install Android Apps on the Device itself, has code completition and lots of other cool things.

I tried AIDE. It was very neat. I couldn't believe it was doing what it seemed to be doing. Tried it on an ASUS Transformer with a keyboard. Don't think I'll switch to that as my primary development mode but it is quite handy if I am on an airplane or doing something else and don't have my larger laptop but want to try something to see if it works.

If your an iPad user, try Textastic app. In my opinion, it's the best source code editor for mobile at the moment. It has syntax highlighting, code completion, symbol navigation, (S)FTP, Dropbox support and great keyboard extension with easy swipe access to all special characters and numbers. See more: http://www.textasticapp.com I code for living and with this app, coding even on the touchscreen is a breeze.

Your app looks great too, though.

I can highly recommend https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.sblo.pandor...

It has syntax highlighting too, not sure about indentation.

I recently uninstalled DroidEdit because I had to handle more updates to it than uses for a text editor on my tab. This is mostly because typing without tactile feedback isn't that great. The editor in itself was quite smart though.

Looks great, just bought the pro version. I tried a few others last week but was not satisfied.

Eager to try the remote commands for unit testing and source control.

A ssh client, vim and external keyboard is all I need for code editing. I don't see the need for this kind of app.

You can also run Vim and Git on a chroot so no Internet connection needed: http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-inst...

That said, the editor in this post looks interesting.

Not everyone prefers an IDE but certainly you can see the need for them...

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