IPad Text Editors, Reviewed | Hacker News Reader

IPad Text Editors, Reviewed

the.taoofmac.com

46 pointsditados23 comments

The past month, everything I've written has been done in a combination of Bywords (all my notes are Markdown) and Textastic (for code). I actually haven't used a computer directly since getting the new iPad (not because of any grand plan, I've just been trying to see exactly how much I can get done just on my iPad).

I'm cheating somewhat by ocassionally SSH'ing to other systems, where tmux and the crazy high resolution makes things surprisingly usable.

This week I just started a new job, where all of the internal, company stuff (timesheets, email, etc.) works on my iPad; which makes me feel like I've just stepped out of the 90's from a corporate perspective.

Do you have a recommendation for an iPad ssh client?

> Do you have a recommendation for an iPad ssh client?

Try Prompt[1], which is developed by Panic—the same guys who do Coda and Unison.

[1]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prompt/id421507115?mt=8

In addition to Prompt you should check out iSSH[1]. I've used it since the days of the first iPad and I've been satisfied with it. (Though at the moment it's a tad more expensive than Prompt.)

[1]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/issh-ssh-vnc-console/id287765...

I'll add a vote for Prompt. I have iSSH as well, but have pretty much standardized on Prompt.

Another vote for Prompt here. Love it.

Do you use an external keyboard? Which one? Do you carry it around with you?

There is an app named worqshop that is the first iPad app with github commit functionality. It works reasonably well.

However, the text editor in this app is extremely barebones, lacking undo currently and lacking syntax highlighting for the majority of file types.

Textastic Git support is currently in the works. No ETA, though.

http://feedback.textasticapp.com/topic/7628-support-for-vers...

What I've found lacking on the iPad is apps that are suitable for structured, long-form writing similar to things like LyX. I can write Markdown or LaTeX by hand in a text editor but much prefer a graphical environment, and none of the available word processing apps support styles, cross-references, or any of the other things I need for academic writing.

I've actually been working on an app which supports these features for the past few months and hope to release soon. It's at the point where I'm looking for some feedback on UI & functionality from anyone who does a lot of academic or technical writing. If you're interested, drop me a line (kellypmk@gmail.com).

I've been implementing an iPad code editor with GitHub support, http://worqshop.com/ It's quite basic but you can do cool things with GitHub web hooks, etc.

Whatever you are doing to your site's menu bar, it does not work for me in Safari. It flickers and jumps around while scrolling. (5.2, so might be my fault)

Besides, great work. I just bought an Apple USB keyboard to replace the BT keyboard on my main computer, maybe I'll take the BT one with me for iPad coding now!

I purchased Texttastic the other day because my MacBook Air is in for service. Great text editor and if paired with a bluetooth keyboard you almost forget you're not on a laptop.

I love Textastic! It's custom kb makes programming super easy. I love code completion. The cursor control thing is brilliant.

Not sure if you've looked at TextExpander but I find it to be a nice compliment to Textastic. I created some Django shortcuts that seem to work nicely. %%ifeq turns into {% ifequal %}{% endifequal %}

I've been using Nocs(no affil) on my iPad lately. Great FREE editor with dropbox and markdown support.

Why not just SSH into vim?

Coding over SSH is a pain using crappy coffee shop wifi. Much easier to make a change, then push it up to the server via SFTP when you're done. Maybe I'm just anal retentive, but I can tolerate a bit of a lag when punching in compile commands, etc, but not when writing code. Instantaneous response is essential to flow!

Don't any of the ipad ssh clients support local echo?

There's also an app that's a proper port (though not very full-featured). http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/23/vim-for-ipad-iphone/

But there's a big problem, even if you have a physical keyboard: No escape key. Oh well, I live in hope.

inoremap jj <Esc>

So I can't go down two lines?

I did inoremap q, which is not too bad if you're typing English prose. But still.

If you are already in Normal mode there's nothing to escape from, thus it's entirely possible to navigate down two lines. I find myself typing q quite often in day to day programming (it appears in 'frequency', 'query', 'quote', all important in my application), whereas jj is a sequence that appears in ~four words in English %w{hajj hajjes hajji hajjis}

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