Oh this looks awesome! I am so excited for the future of developing on Android, with hardware keyboards and devices like the Transformer Prime. I can't wait to try this out. The idea of carrying around just a tablet and being able to write Android applications on the fly is just too cool.
I wonder how far we are from a total replacement of old desktop operating systems in the mainstream, even for developers? I'm aware they're not going away since there will be millions and millions that cling to them. But they may become specialty cases, not sold on computers in stores, etc.
I honestly can't tell if this is sarcastic or not. The idea of developing on anything without a fullsize keyboard makes me nauseous just thinking about it.
Handy for tweaking something on the go, but developing projects (especially in such verbose languages) on a pocket-sized device would be incredibly painful.
I'd be interested to see how this works on a laptop-ish Android device though.
I tried using an Eee Transformer as my primary computer for two weeks. It was just about tolerable for casual usage, but had the amount of holes in basic functionality was pretty shocking. E.g. I never realized how many Google Docs spreadsheets I actually deal with weekly, and how totally crippled Docs is on Android. It doesn't help that Android apps are really not designed with keyboards in mind, or that the trackpad support is a joke. Using a touchscreen in a laptop configuration turns out not to be very comfortable.
It was intolerable for development even with an Ubuntu install to chroot into.
Basically the whole tablet + keyboard form factor looks cool but is useless in practice with Android. I hope the situation improves in the future, but don't really expect it given how tiny part of the whole Android ecosystem these devices are.
"Also vim has been setup by default in a humane way (arrow keys work, backspace..), so that starting on this long and glorious journey won't begin with a punch in the face."
It's great application, last couple of days I was searching to change the hosts file to test localhost mobile web app. But it was difficult to root access and push the host file to the android system. Anyway this may help to all the things.
Is there any android hardware out that could make good use of this?
I'm thinking a phone with a mini-HDMI port, so whereever I go I can just connect it to any real monitor which is to hand. If the thing can act as a USB host, add in a micro-USB to full-USB dongle, and I can connect a real keyboard and mouse too.
What'd be even nicer would be a deck-of-cards sized "docking station", which could have 4 full USB ports (keyboard, mouse, thumb drive, spare), VGA out, and wired ethernet.
I'm not completely sure since I have no experience with almost nothing made by Apple, but I think the terms of service of the iOS App Store disallow compilers/interpreters. Also, you can't run unsigned binaries.
If I'm accurate, both of the aforementioned policies are sort of showstoppers for an IDE, except maybe for jailbroken devices.
This is awesome! What I'd like to see added next, I think, is gcc - I'd like to bootstrap from there to a package manager to installing all the other tools I'm used to having in a command line environment. Vim, bash and javac are nice, but I can't use it to work on my existing projects unless I can compile their dependencies.
The problem is the lack of an efficient input method. I personally haven't come across any good soft full keyboard. And special keys won't work on bluetooth keyboards on old Android versions. I personally do not have a ICS device yet, but I think it's definitely possible to develope on ICS if the input problem is solved.
[+] [-] cryptoz|14 years ago|reply
I wonder how far we are from a total replacement of old desktop operating systems in the mainstream, even for developers? I'm aware they're not going away since there will be millions and millions that cling to them. But they may become specialty cases, not sold on computers in stores, etc.
[+] [-] fredley|14 years ago|reply
Handy for tweaking something on the go, but developing projects (especially in such verbose languages) on a pocket-sized device would be incredibly painful.
I'd be interested to see how this works on a laptop-ish Android device though.
[+] [-] jsnell|14 years ago|reply
It was intolerable for development even with an Ubuntu install to chroot into.
Basically the whole tablet + keyboard form factor looks cool but is useless in practice with Android. I hope the situation improves in the future, but don't really expect it given how tiny part of the whole Android ecosystem these devices are.
[+] [-] caller9|14 years ago|reply
Awesome.
[+] [-] kruhft|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vinsanda|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Karellen|14 years ago|reply
I'm thinking a phone with a mini-HDMI port, so whereever I go I can just connect it to any real monitor which is to hand. If the thing can act as a USB host, add in a micro-USB to full-USB dongle, and I can connect a real keyboard and mouse too.
What'd be even nicer would be a deck-of-cards sized "docking station", which could have 4 full USB ports (keyboard, mouse, thumb drive, spare), VGA out, and wired ethernet.
[+] [-] hack_edu|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pvarangot|14 years ago|reply
If I'm accurate, both of the aforementioned policies are sort of showstoppers for an IDE, except maybe for jailbroken devices.
[+] [-] mlntn|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bogdand|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkokelley|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jimrandomh|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clvv|14 years ago|reply