Dringend – iOS and Mac development on your iPad | Hacker News Reader

Dringend – iOS and Mac development on your iPad

dringend.cc

90 pointsdavidbarker59 comments

I'd like to point out that the developer of this application is 17 years old. He's a student at the school I work at and a fantastic programmer.

I don't know whether he'd be annoyed at me for mentioning this or not, but given some of the negativity in the comments, I think it's worth noting. I can't imagine the type of applications he'll be developing in a few years time.

The comments have been pretty negative, but I think they are mainly due to the fact that this project (whilst being cool) isn't really that useful.

The fact that the developer is 17 is cool: maybe you could suggest that it could be turned into a code review/ code merging tool? That might suit the device a little better (maybe it could airplay the code and be used as a presentation tool?)

Please take on board that people are negative about the idea, as opposed to the implementation.

Is he looking for a summer job? ;)

Holy crap. I know plenty of 20-somethings who haven't accomplished anything close to this.

I know plenty of 30-40 somethings that call themselves programmers that wouldn't know how to even prototype this.

Thanks, I feel completely useless now. Wouldn't even know where to start with something like this.

It's a clever system: the app is really a text editor which sends the code you write to your Mac. Your Mac builds the app and sends the binary back to your iPad.

Pros:

* Code when you're on the move because... laptops haven't been invented yet?

Cons:

* You need an internet connection all the time. * No support for any version control system??? "Import your project from Dropbox and Dringend will handle syncing any changes you make in the app back to Dropbox." Dropbox for version control??? Are you joking? * No support for unit tests, asset catalog, breakpoints, interface builder...

I really don't get the point of this app, it's a cool hack but it's not an IDE. Developing for iOS involves a complex and large set of essential tools, no decent IDE for iOS can omit a single one of these tools.

Hi there, I'm the developer of this app so just thought I'd reply to some of the cons you made.

You don't need an internet connection all the time, just simply for building or running the application as Dringend needs to connect to the build server.

Support for git is coming up in version 1.2 and is going to be in the hands of beta testers very soon.

Features such as support for asset catalogs and XIBs/Storyboards are also in the pipeline.

Glad to hear git support is on the way. This roadmap would a good addition to your website.

Thanks. Took your advice and added a small section to the homepage detailing features that are planned for the future.

Great work. Looks like the build server needs authentication though -- don't want just anyone able to connect to the port you open up on the Mac.

Its pretty typical for any personal project here to have a lot of negative feedback and reasons why it wouldn't ever be used. Just make sure you take the good suggestions as constructive rather than getting discouraged.

Xib / storyboard editing on the ipad would make a great app on its own. Great job.

It's $10. That's around what you pay for a text editor on iOS. This one has some very cool, different features.

Apple's been working on Xcode for years, give this one some time to catch up.

IB: I doubt re-implementing Interface Builder on iOS would be a good use of time. Probably better off using some good screen sharing software.

I wonder what breakpoints would even look like without different multitasking. I found a library [1] that allows you to send messages to the running app, maybe you could get something clever going on using URL schemes to swap between the "debugger" and the running app.

1: https://github.com/Shopify/superdb

Thanks for pointing me to superdb, definitely looks like a very cool project.

Not trying to be rude because this obviously took a ton of effort, but why on earth would I ever want to build iOS/Mac apps on an iPad? My fingers hurt just thinking about it.

Why not? With a good UI especially the initial UI building and layout design would be fun to do on a touch device. Also writing a small pieces of behavioral code and connecting existing behavioral code would be totally doable with a good UI. Think, for example, how game dev teams work: hardcore coders implement complex behaviors and game design coders mainly connect them to the game objects and adjust parameters.

Granted, this app probably isn't yet there, but in a few years, thinks will be different.

Just to present a contrary viewpoint, I've wanted something like this for a long time. So, kudos to the team behind it.

Why would I want it? I take my iPad everywhere, that's why. My iPad is my go-to device.

I'm not at all certain it will work for me, or the workflow will be to my linking, but I'm glad someone did it. And they'll get my ten bucks.

Curious to see how they handle provisioning & loading builds onto the same device. Hopefully it's really seamless.

As I understand it, Dringend commands your remote xcode on your mac to build your app. If the built ipa is placed in dropbox along with the install XML (or was it html?), the ipa can then be installed from a dropbox url, works just like Testflight.

Any particular reason why this app has the Dutch word for urgent as it's name?

I was wondering the same. Since the author is from the UK, probably accidentally?

It started out as a code name for the app and was chosen in particular because it meant urgent in Dutch/German. The idea was something I had wanted to work on for quite a while but I initially got sidetracked with other things and as it was something I wanted to get working on as soon as possible I picked the code name 'urgent' (Dringend).

A little off topic: The video is almost pointless.

You cant clearly see the screen because of the horrible reflection. Maybe a video of the app on the mac in the ipad simulator would be better.

http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/

Where has this been all these years? No idea if this project works (depends on a local Mac so that ruins it for me), but it kills me that we can AirPlay to TV's and run high resolution with bluetooth keyboard/mouse hookup and still we can't develop on our iPhone/iPad?

That's what you get when using a platform that's not developer, but app store customer friendly. Without breaking into your own device you can't do much with it, so it's hardly a surprise.

Blame Apple. It's their App Store restrictions that prevent it from happening - Android tablets can do a lot more.

I, myself believe that what this guy has achieved is brilliant. Just 2 years ago when I was 14 I released my first iOS game and there was an overwhelming show support for me which encouraged me to do more, I think this guy deserves the same! If he doesn't receive the support he needs he may never see an interest in it again, give him a break, I doubt most people get past 'Hello World' anyway.

The app is a brilliant idea and the possibilities are endless for what it could potentially be, well done and continue doing what you're doing! - Alfie

Very impressive. Doesn’t seem like the easiest setup to actually do day-to-day coding on. However seems like an awesome tool to do code reviews and small touch ups / demoes on the go.

Really awesome work guys.

I wonder if they'll have the Clang static analyzer running in the iPad or they'll parse the syntax through a server. In the former case would be really awesome, and possibly doable given the static analyzer is open source. Wonder how much work is required to parse XIB and storyboards... I'd love to use this on an airplane.

At the moment the app doesn't employ the use of the Clang static analyzer but I am looking into using libClang both for live issues as you code and also for auto complete. Also, XIB/Storyboard support is one that will be worked on just as soon as git support is out of the door and in the hands of the users.

(I'm the dev by the way)

You could maybe look into the jailbreak community. It is possible to compile (etc) on the device itself and they previously had an IDE in the works which was never finished. I am sure they'd love to have a look at this.

So now that we are on the subject of IDE's for ipads. What are some other nice apps to edit other languages on the go?

I use https://panic.com/prompt/ on my iPhone & iPad to SSH into a machine and then just use VIM from there.

I use Prompt + vim as well. I don't always travel with my personal laptop and it's nice for prototyping or quick fixes.

I'm a big fan of Pythonista: http://omz-software.com/pythonista/

Textastic[1] and gitmongo[2] are my indispensable duo when it comes to code editing, searching and git interactions on my iphone/ipad.

[1]: http://www.textasticapp.com/

[2]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gitmongo/id593450102?mt=8

Check these out...

ProCoding: http://procoding.audiocommander.de/

Codea: http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/

ScriptKit: http://scriptk.it/

There is Raskell which lets you write and run Haskell on an iPad, using a modified version of the educational Hugs compiler (so it's more for recreative programming than serious projects): http://slidetocode.com/raskell/

I'm on a 13" MBAir and this happens when I play the embedded video and go fullscreen (using Chrome stable). http://i.imgur.com/cr44bL6.png

I've never seen something like this before

Taking from the comments, it could be "useless", but the technology could be very interesting and the start of something bigger. I can imagine that Apple would be interesting in acquiring this technology and developing it further.

But by requiring a remote build server I can't work without a network.

If I wanted to quick code reviews or checks I could just look at the repository on my iPad.

Still very nice implentation. It must be scary writing a product that squeaks past Apple's rules.

The biggest thing I see missing is debugging. I am not sure how much development I can do with out my NSLog statements. It shouldn't be hard to add writing the debugging statements to a text file for your to check on the iPad.

This is something I've been look into, unfortunately whilst you can log to a file rather than to the console it wouldn't be possible for Dringend to access the file due to sandboxing. However, my current idea is overriding NSLog when installing projects and funneling any logs into a custom pasteboard which Dringend can then read from when it becomes the open app again.

Definitely consider this to be something I'm looking to include in a future version, sooner rather than later.

I imagined that it would all be done through remote debugging with the file accessed over dropbox, but I guess it makes sense that you would have to do it locally.

This is neat. Is it acting most as a GUI to xcode CLI tools that's running on OSX?

Would be a little nicer if they made it clear in the video demo that you need a Mac as a build server and Dropbox for storage.

I think that's pretty awesome - I've been wanting something like that for Python django for a while, so I will be waiting still, but things are going in the right direction, top work.

Some functionality for working with XIBs in an intuitive way would be a great feature. Same for Core Data models.

"Run" on the iPad? How do they get around the App Store prohibition on downloaded binary code?

Answering my own question -- looks like it just builds the IPA on the Mac, uploads it to Dropbox, and installs it on the device.

Does it work with existing C++ XCode projects?

i would have expected fully integrated with git... not having any git support for dev box is a show stopper.

Seems pretty similar to http://thebinaryapp.com/

Except it is for native iOS apps. Ends up being completely different.

+ Developing on iOS directly.

- https://www.google.com/search?num=30&q=define+integrated+dev... ==> IDE usually means it is standalone. This project is a wrapper for remote Xcode.

Kudos on the work. I was TOTALLY misled thinking I could dev right on the device (see Terminal IDE on Android...). $10 for a remote wrapper is too rich for my blood.

Also: "Dringend lets you build and run your application wherever you are in the world" should be starred: "Dringend lets you build and run your application wherever you are in the world * " * Network connectivity required.

I'm pretty sure a jerk would jump in a Faraday cage and cite how they couldn't use the app.

I've never been interested in Apple stuff, but if you already have a keyboard, why not go keyboard-only, in a way similar to Vim. That should certainly be way more efficient.

And thinking about it, do people realize how much effort is being replicated with these "app stores". There are already plenty of free(as in freedom) editors and IDE's out there, that would need no adaptations(in the case of Vim) whatsoever to run on mobile devices, if only the devices themselves were just a little bit more free.

Vim on the Apple app store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vim/id492668168?mt=8

Thanks for the link. Didn't know I could hack on VIM on my iDevice. Balance restored to the universe.

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