apps for developers

[liptonlover]

list any already out, and upcoming. Though I don't think there are any except for calculators, I've looked all over.

 

[jaseone]

Define what you mean as apps for developers?

 

[Stratification]

If you're looking for something to code in, I'll second that. I know it seems absolutely insane to want to code on a virtual keyboard, but I find myself wishing I could do it all the time. I just don't have the time to learn Objective-C, nor the knowhow to build something with reasonable code highlighting.

 

[liptonlover]

@ Jaseone - anything. Not even just for iphone/mac coding. References, (class documentation) compilers, though that would be limiting, debuggers, IB's, etc..

@ Stratification - I used to dev for palm PDAs, and I did it all onboard my own palm. It was kind of slow, but I find coding on the go to be very useful. Sure I could just write in notes, but then I can't test my code or anything.

I think it'd be possible, though hard, to get a full debugger, code editor, and even IB onto the touch. Then just provide a way to get your stuff on and off your iPhone.

 

[chrisesposito]

NSbasic (NSBasic.com) has had a dual IDE product for at least the last 10 years - 1 runs on the desktop, and the other runs on the device (Palm / Newton / Windows CE / Symbian). They have a video of some Palm apps running on an iPhone through some 3rd application. I'd love it if they ported their tools to the iPod Touch / iPhone, but under the current terms of the SDK I don't see how they could.

For relatively simple applications (data entry / retrieval with a few forms backed by a database; simple sketching, etc.) having an IDE that runs on the device can be very useful for prototyping and user testing in the field. When we encountered problems with an app, the user could hand me the device, I could fix the problem on the spot and hand it back for them to continue to test.

 

[jaseone]

For relatively simple applications (data entry / retrieval with a few forms backed by a database; simple sketching, etc.) having an IDE that runs on the device can be very useful for prototyping and user testing in the field. When we encountered problems with an app, the user could hand me the device, I could fix the problem on the spot and hand it back for them to continue to test.

Wouldn't it be just as fast if not faster to take a laptop, perform the fixes on the laptop and then resync the app down to the device? It just seems like it would be awfully clumsy performing any real coding on the iPhone itself.

In regards to the original posters question there are several apps out there:

iSSH - If you do any web development and support any sites then this is amn awesome tool, soon to get VNC and XServe support that can be tunneled over SSH as well

VI Reference - A handy guide to VI commands

PHP Ref - self explanatory

Mides IDE - some weird IDE to handle PHP/HTML/CSS/JS, which I totally don't get the point of as it cna only use FTP on a local network.

They are the only ones I've spotted but there could be some out there I've missed.

 

[chrisesposito]

Wouldn't it be just as fast if not faster to take a laptop, perform the fixes on the laptop and then resync the app down to the device? It just seems like it would be awfully clumsy performing any real coding on the iPhone itself.
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That depends on where you are using the app relative to your desktop / laptop IDE. If you are in the middle of a factory, or up on a forklift, or in the middle of a partially assembled plane 15 feet off the ground (I work for Boeing in R&D) it can be a long way (and a long time) to get to a spot where you can safely put a laptop. You wouldn't do large amounts of coding on the device, but having the user / domain expert, the work, and the developer all at the same spot at the same time while being able to test out some new ideas on the spot can be a great way to advance the state of the application in a very short time.