[barosl]

I also write code using my phone when I'm on a bus or the subway. It requires some patience but after getting used to it, the experience is surprisingly pleasant especially if you're familiar with terminal-based tools. My environment consists of:

  - Galaxy S24 Ultra
  - Termius: I think it is the best terminal emulator and SSH client on Android. The sad thing is that the paid version is a bit too expensive. ($10 per month, no permanent option)
  - tmux: Mobile connections are brittle so it is a must.
  - Vim: Allows me to navigate the code freely without using arrow keys, which is really useful on the touch keyboard.

Not that of a big deal, but the thing that I think is more pleasant on the phone than on the PC is that I can use my fingerprint to log in to the remote server. The fingerprint is stored in the TPM so it is safe. It feels magical!

Edit: The biggest pain point for me was the limited width of the smartphone screen. It is a bit hard to skim over the code quickly because most lines are severely cut. Text wrapping helps this but personally I hate text wrapping. Keeping landscape mode is not an option because the code area is completely hidden when the touch keyboard is displayed. That's why foldable phones are great for coding, as they have a wider screen. My previous phone was Galaxy Fold and it was a wonderful coding machine.

[glidergun]

Try pairing tmux with mosh, it's how I've been working for years whenever I'm forced to admin through a brittle straw. Mosh combats lag pretty well and doesn't care if your connection drops intermittently. https://mosh.org/

[barosl]

I tried Mosh but it didn't fit my taste. It tries to "predict" the state of the screen before being acknowledged by the server, but sometimes the prediction is wrong and Mosh reverts the cursor movement and redraws the affected area of the terminal. For example, when I'm using split windows in Vim or tmux, Mosh allows typed characters to overflow beyond the separator, briefly, until being told "no" by the server. Personally I find this behavior very disturbing. Enduring higher lags was more bearable to me.

[nissarup]

"...admin through a brittle straw." :D That's exactly what it feels like.

[_joel]

mosh has saved some hair pulling, especially when on a train journey with at best spotty 3G and you get pinged about an outage.

[mewpmewp2]

I wish I could do it. I find even just texting annoying. Also Galaxy phone. I wonder if my fingers may just be too fat. Although I don't think they are. Actually I hate doing most things through a phone, and e.g. if a food delivery app has a desktop version I will always use that given the chance.

[rlupi]

I have been really impressed lately using Samsung Dex on a XReal Air 2. AR glasses have really improved in the recent years. It gives you a better screen than many small laptops.

For longer trips (train, airplane), add a mechanical wireless bluetooth keyboard (my choice would be a NuPhy Air 75) to feel like a king. For the occasional browser + SSH on the go, it's better (less space + better keyboard + larger screen experience) than bringing my 13" laptop (+ phone).

[TristanBall]

Gosh they look interesting. But ridiculously customer unfriendly product naming, and a website that doesn't provide clear information on international shipping just raises so many red flags for me.

[ionagamed]

Mosh was suggested in another comment, but I’ve found that et (https://eternalterminal.dev/) suits my needs better.

It does nothing to fix lag, but connection failures are handled without a hitch, same session resumes like normal on spotty train wifi and mobile data.

[sharperguy]

Do you use a special keyboard app too, or just the default one?

[barosl]

Just the default one. I tried some alternative keyboards and they are better in some ways but in the end the default keyboard was enough. Termius provides input of some special keys (e.g. Ctrl, Alt, Esc, Tab, Home, End) so that's another reason why the default keyboard is enough.

[nanna]

But how you type?

[gorlilla]

T9 on a Nokia 3310.

[InDubioProRubio]

Laptop is superior.. sorry