IDE App for the iPad

[bern1812]

As a CS student I would love to see some IDE's come out in App form for use on the iPad. Most of my work is done in Java, so an Eclipse App would be perfect for me to look over my code, do some testing or slight alterations when I get bored in my non-CS classes. Heck, I would even settle for Dr. Java.

Im sure a lot of programmers would be interested in having various IDE options to do some light work on their iPad while out and about.

Thoughts?

 

[admanimal]

I had the same thought, but there are two main problems. The biggest one is that Apple doesn't allow apps that enable the user to run arbitrary code on the device, even if it's something harmless like a BASIC interpreter or things like that. The second problem is that without multitasking, it would be very difficult or impossible for the IDE to allow you to compile and run the code anyway.

So I think the best we will see for this purpose is just a text editor that supports syntax checking or something like that.

 

[chrisesposito]

As a CS student I would love to see some IDE's come out in App form for use on the iPad. Most of my work is done in Java, so an Eclipse App would be perfect for me to look over my code, do some testing or slight alterations when I get bored in my non-CS classes. Heck, I would even settle for Dr. Java.

Im sure a lot of programmers would be interested in having various IDE options to do some light work on their iPad while out and about.

Thoughts?

once a jailbreak for the iPad is available, you could probably run several of the lighter weight IDEs. An iPad + a folding bluetooth keyboard & bluetooth mouse would be very nice and compact. If we're talking a jailbroken device, then either the iPad bluetooth stack or Mathias Ringwald's BTStack would work for this.

 

[Luke Redpath]

Buy a laptop.

 

[colmaclean]

Better idea would be to VNC onto a real computer.

 

[nutmac]

Even if you could, you don't want to use a lightweight device like iPad or netbook for Java development. Java IDEs like Eclipse itself uses quite a bit of memory and CPU resource, as well Java runtime. And you really want higher resolution and larger screen for serious development.

 

[mrgreen4242]

As mentioned, the inability to have any sort of interpreter or compiler would make an IDE less useful... except for web development. I hope to see something like TextMate released with an integrated FTP app which would let you keep a project in sync with a webserver, and since to "execute" the program all you would need is a web browser you'd be in the clear as far as Apple's rules go.

In fact, an integrated FTP client as well as a web browser would be good (WebKit hooks are all there, and it doesn't need any features... just open up the address where the files are being saved too, basically).

Having a fourth feature to browse reference docs for various languages (PHP, CSS, SQL, etc) would be great as well. Just syntax guides, function lists, etc.

I would gladly pay $10 for it, $15+ if it had the in app web preview and good reference documentation.

 

[lordhamster]

As mentioned, the inability to have any sort of interpreter or compiler would make an IDE less useful... except for web development. I hope to see something like TextMate released with an integrated FTP app which would let you keep a project in sync with a webserver, and since to "execute" the program all you would need is a web browser you'd be in the clear as far as Apple's rules go.

In fact, an integrated FTP client as well as a web browser would be good (WebKit hooks are all there, and it doesn't need any features... just open up the address where the files are being saved too, basically).

Having a fourth feature to browse reference docs for various languages (PHP, CSS, SQL, etc) would be great as well. Just syntax guides, function lists, etc.

I would gladly pay $10 for it, $15+ if it had the in app web preview and good reference documentation.

Exactly. Once people get past the idea of All client or all Server applications, this should be no problem.

I develop JSP pages in Eclipse all the time. All I really would need is for my changes to be automatically uploaded to the server and then for me to be able to run my pages in a (in window) browser. I'm sure something similar could be done with a hybrid VNC/IDE. The developers just need to be a little creative.

Then again, honestly I think the form factor would be somewhat limiting for editing code. I think programming may be on of the areas where a real notebook or desktop trumps the iPad.

 

[Sydde]

Even if you could, you don't want to use a lightweight device like iPad or netbook for Java development. Java IDEs like Eclipse itself uses quite a bit of memory and CPU resource, as well Java runtime. And you really want higher resolution and larger screen for serious development.

As far as the Java runtime goes, that should not be much of a problem: if the A4 CPU is based on Cortex, it should have "Jazelle" to accelerate Java.

 

[atharumar]

How about some online IDEs ?
I read about eclipse is also working on it...

As a CS student I would love to see some IDE's come out in App form for use on the iPad. Most of my work is done in Java, so an Eclipse App would be perfect for me to look over my code, do some testing or slight alterations when I get bored in my non-CS classes. Heck, I would even settle for Dr. Java.

Im sure a lot of programmers would be interested in having various IDE options to do some light work on their iPad while out and about.

Thoughts?

 

[colmaclean]

How about some online IDEs ?
I read about eclipse is also working on it...

I'll wait and see how fast that runs! Eclipse has only just stopping running like a dog on my desktop.

Now it would be nice if they'd also host a personal Tomcat server so I could develop Spring apps in "the cloud".