iPad version any time soon?

[brandonpapworth]

Windows 8 isn’t going to be a sure-fire solution to handling Sublime Text, as the ARM version will not support the “classic” environment that allows you to run desktop applications that weren’t written with Microsoft’s new fancy crap.

When it comes to running Sublime Text on other OSes aside from the current ones, that IS quite the undertaking. The fact that it runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux is pretty fantastic, especially with how fast it performs on all of those platforms. The high performance indicates that Sublime Text must be coded in a very fast, modular manner that allows for efficient porting between operating systems.

This is why some open source projects bring on people to maintain a specific platform version of the software (like VLC), but this also poses a problem of consistent support across such platforms (again, VLC ran into this problem when they lost some OS X developers and couldn’t quickly build the x86_64 versions of VLC for a small time).

This isn’t open source, but it would be interesting if a completely torn-apart version of Sublime Text could be released in source code to see if people could make good ports to iOS, Android, etc. And evaluate the possibility of its existence on those platforms.

I’m not really asking for this, just proposing an interesting idea. I find it hard to ask for more when Sublime Text is already kicking a good amount of ass.

[Synaesthete]

Actually I would get tons of use out of an iPad version of Sublime Text. It would be an absolute must that it was capable of operating via a remote connection to my development folder. All of my current projects relate to coding web-based applications for tablets. If I were able to remotely edit a Javascript file located on my development server, and for my edits to save back to the server, this would be a huge convenience for me. While I do my heavy coding on the PC, there’s always this phase of switching over to the iPad to test and tweak–and frankly, any opportunity to step away from the PC and kick back with the iPad (by the pool, maybe out in the garage) really helps get the creative juices flowing. It would be nice to turn that inspiration in to code! I’m sure there’s a way to instantiate such a connection from the iPad to a desktop PC.

Anyway, seeing how the future is shaping up, multi-device development environments are going to represent a significant market. With the platform I’m working on at the moment, I have the ability to read consolidated debug messages on my iPad coming from a range of distributed applications and devices on a network–it’s very cool. With the rise of distributed applications, it is not uncommon to both test and develop simultaneously on a PC, one or more tablets, smartphones, etc… I’m in dire need of a more fluid mechanism for distributed application development. A tablet-based editor with connectedness to a networked server location would be clutch.

[martinoosthuizen]

I use my iPad for web development all the time. Like editing XML, HTML, CSS and my Python files for Django apps. Very often I’m out between meetings, and I get a lot done using my iPad. There’s a whole lot going on in Sublime Text, so I don’t imagine that would be an easy port at all, and getting all the dependencies in place, eek! But it sure would be a good fit for iPad. You can already do quite a bit using CodeAnywhere, Koder and Markup. Being able to use the familiar and pleasant Sublime Text interface on iPad would be a dream come true. A home away from home. I think for now it could work great for web developers on iPad. Desktop development… That’s a tough one. Besides the software dependencies, these tablets need more oomf. But I really do think it would be a feasible product for Jon to make now already. It’s a big market. Even if it started out just supporting the most popular web technologies and some of the plugins that won’t make the tablet explode. That would cover a sizable market. I’d buy it for sure. Just a thought.

[waffl]

There was an interesting blog post from this developer who was using his iPad for development:

yieldthought.com/post/1223928203 … or-an-ipad
yieldthought.com/post/3185705069 … year-later

[Stefano.Rausch]

My impression is that this ( an iPad version ) won’t happen any time soon – if at all

In the meantime, have you had a look at http://omz-software.com/pythonista/? Looks like it is the “best” you can get for the time being.

Just my 0.02.

[natebeaty]

[quote=“Stefano.Rausch”]My impression is that this ( an iPad version ) won’t happen any time soon – if at all

In the meantime, have you had a look at http://omz-software.com/pythonista/? Looks like it is the “best” you can get for the time being.

Just my 0.02.[/quote]

Holy crap that’s a cool looking app. (Now there’s a pullquote.)

[varg242]

That’s will be good.

[iamntz]

See Jon response here: ARM build?

[uberfu]

[quote=“C0D312”]Hmmm… that has been stressful. I can’t decide which sarcastic comment to leave on this thread. So I’ll just leave them all.

• Yeah, Jon! Why don’t you just press that “build iPad app” button to launch a free iPad app?
• I don’t know…Make-my-iPad-app-for-me-omatics are pretty expensive this time of the year.
• Like totally, this should totally happen. And it HAS to be free, or it’s a deal-breaker.
• Oh please! Also, can you make it $-10 so that when I buy it, you actually pay ME?
• Pshhh! No one uses iPads anymore. Wave your wand and make me a free android tablet app.

P.S. Feel free to vote. Categories: more creative, most sarcastic, and most likable.[/quote]

As much amusement as I found from your post - there has to be a compromise to pricing on mobile platforms - as many software titles that cross from the desktop to mobile devices do in fact come with a price cut - primarily due to the limitation of features that devs can add to them relative to the desktop counterparts.

Coda runs $75-$100 for the desktop version. Diet Coda runs $20 for the iPad version.

There are significant differences between what the full featured desktop version and the iPad version can do. I would suspect there to be limitations for Sublime compared to the desktop version if it were ported to the iPad as well.

If the dev(s) here could in fact migrate Sublime 100% (as is) to iOS then I would by all means pay the price they set to get a copy of it. But if they begin porting it and find limitations that Apple has set in place that restrict various functionality that the desktop User expects - then I would expect the price point to be lower relative to what has been eliminated for each platform.

One more arguement - not sure to which side of the coin this caters to - but the lower cost of downlaodable software also lends itself to the fact that there is zero overhead for distribution. Including Sublime. They are not having to burn CDs/DVDs - package them and ship them. So when I walked into an electronics store in the 1980s and 1990s to buy some software for $50-$100 per copy - I was paying for all the effort going into development - but I was also paying for the box - the graphics on the box - the instruction manual printing cost - the plastic - the employee to put the box on the shelf - the cost of distribution (the gas for the truck to haul it to the store) and on and on.

I maintain a couple of Websites - traffic is much lower than here - so my cost is rather cheap - but even semi-higher volume Sites like this aren’t much more expensive. After the development is done - a final copy is uploaded to a server and sits there. When someone downloads (or purchases) Sublime - the server feeds a copy of the file sitting on the server to the User - Zero overhead of products. Half of a percent of a penny for bandwidth to download the file.

Point is that we can sit here and argue both sides of this all day long - but pricing for “mobile” apps is significantly cheaper on average for a many reasons. Not simply beacause you can load it onto an iPad.

[rm.rf.etc]

Sorry that I’m late to the party.

I would definitely use an ipad sublime text. I can envision a neat setup with the pad on an arm over my bed, bluetooth keyboard in lap, ssh into my desktop running my server and edit the code from the tablet. My debug interface runs in the browser, so that still works fine.