iPhone DevOps (2023)
Programming on my phone (with Termux) is the only reason I am still using an Android phone. That and a real filesystem. I actually use so many terminal tools that I can't imagine migrating to a bunch of GUI apps. Like gopass for passwords management, git for syncing my notes, nvim for writing etc.
With Android 15 you even get a full blown Linux VM running on KVM.
I was actually tempted to switch when AAA games like AC got ported to iOS, but then I remembered I love programming more than gaming.
> Offline folders
> This is like rsync for your phone. In fact I would not be surprised if this is implemented using rsync. Once you configure an offline folder, it will two-way sync that folder while you use the app. The kicker is: on your phone you can now open that folder in another app (like an editor) and make changes. When you switch back to the shellfish app, the changes are uploaded almost instantly.
One can get this killer feature for free with Android and Syncthing. It’s definitely pretty nice!
And of course one can also run Emacs and other free (as in speech or beer) text editors on Android.
IIRC there are a couple of ways to get a full Linux command line environment as well.
I ended up moving away from it just because ‘typing’ with my thumb is painful.
Author here. Awesome that this post got boosted by my latest post. As i wrote in an earlier post, my reason for wanting to develop on my phone is that i became a dad, and my kids did not want to sleep in a bed, so i spent a lot of time sitting in a rocking chair with trying to get them to sleep. One arm is needed for child support. One arm left to do development…
I’ve explored this idea of portable computing using a mobile form factor for years too. So long that the first devices I tried were PDAs with compact-flash micro drives.
I actually preferred those devices for development work because the stylus is a much better input device than fat fingers when it comes to precision input. However you then lose the one-handed feature that the author is keen on.
These days, MacBook Pros have such long battery lives that I couldn’t imagine wanting to use a phone-form-factor for any serious work. But maybe the new style phones bendable screens that flip open like a book, might tempt me back to using a phone for development work again. Unfortunately such devices are currently Android-only at present.
This makes me miss the Nokia N800 I had when I was in college and working part time tech support. Ran a modified Debian and I could whip out a folding Bluetooth keyboard to ssh into a server. Felt like you were part of Hackers, even if the screen was tiny. The physical keyboard made a huge difference for actually getting things done
Secure ShellFish is a very nice app, absolutely worth the money. It's really nice to be able to do a bit of scripting. I don't even bother taking my laptop with me when traveling anymore, my phone/iPad and an external keyboard are enough to quickly jot down a proof of concept for any idea that might pop up in my head.
By the way, the dev also works on a Git client for iOS, Working Copy. I used that together with Shortcuts to make my Obsidian vault sync via git in the background.
I miss physical keyboards, like those on BlackBerry devices. Honestly, I think SSHing into Claude Code from a phone with a physical keyboard would actually be a decent choice for vibe coding today. But maybe I just want a 12-inch M-chip MacBook
Sometimes I think I have a strong work ethic, and then I read something like "I'm coding one handed on an iPhone". Jeez.
I just remote desktop into a full Windows computer in the cloud to do my C# development in Visual Studio Code.
Works from my iPhone, iPad with Magic Keyboard or Huawei Mate XT depending on what I'm out and about with for the day.
Folding bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse
Good to see Secure Shellfish get a mention. Great x-device connection syncing, too. Plus, the full Files app integration is a great complement to the shared/sync’d folders.
Anyone have any new suggestions for similar apps on the Android side of things?
I know the full-blown Linux terminal is "released", but only for Pixel phones by what I've been able to find. Definitely can't install it on my OnePlus 13 yet.
I've been using JuiceSSH for years, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and doesn't receive updates for years anymore either.
Love this. Sometimes being able to work on a phone is perfect for things that need to percolate a little while you walk around or do something mindless at the same time. I put some effort into finding a good writing and markdown rendering app but didn't realize a whole IDE is possible too.
Are there any mobile equivalents of a thin client?
sometimes I'd like to keep my regular phone in my pocket, providing internet and cpu-assistance via bluetooth, but the UI be another device altoghether.
My thought for this was not for a mobile IDE, but a navigation device. iwatch is ok, but still not there.
Any dev choosing iOS in my view has a twisted moral compass as they're perfectly happy to support the social divide apple purposely created and perpetuates to this day with its refusal to move to RCS.
Tried to develop on mobile too. The only issue is the physical keyboard. At that time, I did think about redesign the keyboard for phone to get a precise input experience
Are those terminal apps open-source / source-available? I wouldn't trust some random app with my server keys
iShell with SSH is the best free app. I tried it with a keyboard and got a true fullscreen terminal. I could run btop even.
Pythonista is awesome. Although it hasn’t been updated in 2 years and only supports 3.10, it’s still a beautiful and capable Python IDE.
Now that iOS and Android are Tier 3 platforms, we should be getting closer to the day that we can generate an IPA or APK from our Python project in a single click.
has anyone not mentioned the xreal glasses?
For the love of God, just buy GPD Pocket 4.
Run
I just wrote my own WebOS for coding on iOS rolling eyes -> jun.is
> I am now using a combination of three great apps that allow me to write code in any language using only one hand, holding my son in the other!
The last part is kind of depressing really.
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I tried making my iPad my computer three times. Despite its awesome specs, these remain a huge pain in the rear for actual dev work.
iPadOS and iPhoneOS will remain useless for actual dev work until they unlock hardware virtualization in Virtualization.framework.
Apps on the iPhone and iPad will remain sandboxed, and root isn't possible, so being able to run a VM that _can_ run as root is the next best thing.
I believe this framework on mobile uses software emulation, which is horribly slow and guzzles battery.
Well, this and third-party browser engine support. Mobile Safari is absolutely horrible. This doesn't become apparent until you're using your iPad full time. Death by a trillion cuts. It also burns battery when you start using it with desktop websites.
Until then, the experience is basically you using your iDevice as a dumb terminal (don't mean that as a dig against Termius; great app given its limitations) to some server somewhere where actual work is done. Rendering issues galore if you use vim with color schemes.