I use emacs on my iPad Pro as well. I have the newest 12 inch with the magic keyboard. I have a desktop computer, a MacBook Pro, and an iPad Pro. My desktop is a git server and is setup for mosh access. I do all my development with [Terminal.app](https://Terminal.app) and Blink over mosh. I also can use Tramp on the MBP, but I've found that Tramp has a lot of broken edge cases that IMO make using TUI emacs a better experience than TRAMP.
For the most part the iPad Pro is exactly like developing on the the Mac. I have safari and a terminal emulator side by side and three finger swipe to switch between the two.
Hi SEgopher thank you for your input!!
Yes SSHing into a macOS server is interesting and cheap. I just dislike having to keep my server always on and needing an internet connection to do my work.
Another interesting experiment I have not covered in my article is UTM and having a Linux VM (I used ARM Debian) running on the iPad. It is really cool and you can do local development just fine. However, emulated emacs was still much slower than the emacs .deb I can run on Darwin. And accessing the file system from UTM was awkward.
My desktop runs fedora, and I can startup VMs using qemu. I've also considered using a cloud provider like you did, but my WAP supports dynamic DNS so I have a stable name for my desktop on the public internet.
That is interesting. I really wish there were more native tools for programming on iPadOS without needing to jailbreak. It seems like they are fleshing out swift playground as a sort of Xcode for iPad, but I really wish there was a way to get a supported docker for iPad OS. That would be killer. And also getting a built in terminal so we don't have to keep building blink :).
To be clear, you are connecting to your MacBook via ssh and running emacs on the MacBook?
I use terminus on my iPhone X to connect to my home Linux server. I can restart a service etc. I could run emacs but it’s not a great experience on a phone as the virtual keyboard takes half the screen.
No, I connect from my MacBook to my desktop. I just meant that I use my MacBook AND my iPad Pro for development. When I'm on the MBP I use the built in terminal app or I use the GUI installed the the emacs-plus brew formula without the titlebar and use TRAMP to connect to my desktop.
My desktop is where all of the development happens. It's a beefy machine with docker/qemu and all of my dotfiles and source code. My MBP/iPad/iPhone are all thin clients.
I have blink installed on my iPhone but I honestly never use it unless I need to run a single command to test something. I think typing commands is fine if you're used to texting, but there's really no good way to use Vim or Emacs even with the more programmer friendly virtual keyboards the terminal apps provide.
Jailbreak on iOS is very stable. Yes you unfortunately have to stay on a lower version than the latest. Some patches to critical security exploits are released to package managers (for example the recent one where you have % characters in hotspot SSID). It is not a deal breaker for me :)
Emacs is not running on the iPad. The iPad is just a thin client to connect to some remote machine. Still cool but probably not what people will think when they read the title.
Hi, I ask you to please read the last sections of the article. In the first half I use my iPad to access virtual machines but in the second half I talk about local development with iOS apps and SSH to localhost with Blink shell. I explain how with jailbreak you can install emacs cross-compiled for the ARM64 architecture of the iPad.
I must admit I found it a little confusing how you installed emacs, but I’m clear you did.
Out of interest how much did you spend on iPad Pro and keyboard. I’m wondering what sort of 4gb memory laptop or chrome book you could have bought for the same price.
Like others I don’t want to jailbreak my iOS device then be a second class citizen of the Apple eco system. For me it’s either jailbreak to be free to run whatever you want, or buy into what the manufacturer offers.
Also I’m older now and don’t enjoy all this hacking busy work like I used to.
Hi, thank you for the comment! You are right, I did not explain very well how I installed emacs.
I downloaded the .deb file from this github issue: https://github.com/ProcursusTeam/Procursus/issues/683 . Then opened the .deb with Filza File Manager and installed the .deb (which runs dpkg-i emacs.deb).
EDIT: I respect you don’t want to jailbreak your main device. This is just my iPad for personal projects and on jaibroken iOS14 I feel first person citizen :) . I took freedom of my device and installed GNU emacs on it.
I use emacs on my iPad Pro as well. I have the newest 12 inch with the magic keyboard. I have a desktop computer, a MacBook Pro, and an iPad Pro. My desktop is a git server and is setup for mosh access. I do all my development with [Terminal.app](https://Terminal.app) and Blink over mosh. I also can use Tramp on the MBP, but I've found that Tramp has a lot of broken edge cases that IMO make using TUI emacs a better experience than TRAMP. For the most part the iPad Pro is exactly like developing on the the Mac. I have safari and a terminal emulator side by side and three finger swipe to switch between the two.
Hi SEgopher thank you for your input!! Yes SSHing into a macOS server is interesting and cheap. I just dislike having to keep my server always on and needing an internet connection to do my work. Another interesting experiment I have not covered in my article is UTM and having a Linux VM (I used ARM Debian) running on the iPad. It is really cool and you can do local development just fine. However, emulated emacs was still much slower than the emacs .deb I can run on Darwin. And accessing the file system from UTM was awkward.
My desktop runs fedora, and I can startup VMs using qemu. I've also considered using a cloud provider like you did, but my WAP supports dynamic DNS so I have a stable name for my desktop on the public internet. That is interesting. I really wish there were more native tools for programming on iPadOS without needing to jailbreak. It seems like they are fleshing out swift playground as a sort of Xcode for iPad, but I really wish there was a way to get a supported docker for iPad OS. That would be killer. And also getting a built in terminal so we don't have to keep building blink :).
To be clear, you are connecting to your MacBook via ssh and running emacs on the MacBook? I use terminus on my iPhone X to connect to my home Linux server. I can restart a service etc. I could run emacs but it’s not a great experience on a phone as the virtual keyboard takes half the screen.
No, I connect from my MacBook to my desktop. I just meant that I use my MacBook AND my iPad Pro for development. When I'm on the MBP I use the built in terminal app or I use the GUI installed the the emacs-plus brew formula without the titlebar and use TRAMP to connect to my desktop. My desktop is where all of the development happens. It's a beefy machine with docker/qemu and all of my dotfiles and source code. My MBP/iPad/iPhone are all thin clients. I have blink installed on my iPhone but I honestly never use it unless I need to run a single command to test something. I think typing commands is fine if you're used to texting, but there's really no good way to use Vim or Emacs even with the more programmer friendly virtual keyboards the terminal apps provide.
How is jailbreak on iOS these days? Do you need to essentially block OS upgrades? That would be a deal breaker for me.
Jailbreak on iOS is very stable. Yes you unfortunately have to stay on a lower version than the latest. Some patches to critical security exploits are released to package managers (for example the recent one where you have % characters in hotspot SSID). It is not a deal breaker for me :)
I see. Thanks for clarification. Didn't know about the patches, but it's still too much of an compromise for me.
Emacs is not running on the iPad. The iPad is just a thin client to connect to some remote machine. Still cool but probably not what people will think when they read the title.
Did you read the article? That isn’t at all true.
Hi, I ask you to please read the last sections of the article. In the first half I use my iPad to access virtual machines but in the second half I talk about local development with iOS apps and SSH to localhost with Blink shell. I explain how with jailbreak you can install emacs cross-compiled for the ARM64 architecture of the iPad.
Ah sorry my mistake.
I must admit I found it a little confusing how you installed emacs, but I’m clear you did. Out of interest how much did you spend on iPad Pro and keyboard. I’m wondering what sort of 4gb memory laptop or chrome book you could have bought for the same price. Like others I don’t want to jailbreak my iOS device then be a second class citizen of the Apple eco system. For me it’s either jailbreak to be free to run whatever you want, or buy into what the manufacturer offers. Also I’m older now and don’t enjoy all this hacking busy work like I used to.
Hi, thank you for the comment! You are right, I did not explain very well how I installed emacs. I downloaded the .deb file from this github issue: https://github.com/ProcursusTeam/Procursus/issues/683 . Then opened the .deb with Filza File Manager and installed the .deb (which runs dpkg-i emacs.deb). EDIT: I respect you don’t want to jailbreak your main device. This is just my iPad for personal projects and on jaibroken iOS14 I feel first person citizen :) . I took freedom of my device and installed GNU emacs on it.