Ask HN: Interesting (offline) iPad apps for hackers?

18 points by ssamuli 15 years ago | 15 comments

Going to travel away for a 2½ weeks soon, and I'm going to take only an iPad with me for my basic computer needs (+ an android phone). But what if I get an itch to hack something? Any suggestions on apps that I can get my daily fix of hacker/geek life with?

One option I've been thinking about is setting up some kind of minimal Linux dev environment on the Android phone and SSH'ing in from iPad to get a better terminal/keyboard than I would have on the phone.

Another option would be to just SSH to my home box and do whatever I usually do on it, but it is probable that there's no internet connectivity where I'm going, or it will be painfully slow.

Third option of course would be to force myself to do something else :)

Maybe HN has some other options or suggestions?

earle 15 years ago |

Pro-tip: Forget about an iphone app -- get out and enjoy your life while you're traveling!

ssamuli 15 years ago | |

I know, I will. But just in case! :)

pierrefar 15 years ago | | |

My experience with "just in case" things I take on trips is that they become a distraction. The best trip I ever had was one in October where we went to a hotel on a remote island without any internet and absolutely no phone reception.

It's called relaxation apparently. I liked it.

rossriley 15 years ago |

Not actually coding, but I did read that Apple have just released all their iOS / Objective-C books for free on iBooks.

binarymax 15 years ago |

jsanywhere is pretty good: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/javascript-anywhere/id3634522...

tzs 15 years ago | |

It looks good on the store, but instantly crashes on every attempt to create a project on my iPad.

binarymax 15 years ago | | |

Strange - I've been using it for awhile on my iPad with no issues, perhaps its only certain iOS versions?

fsiefken 15 years ago |

* Jailbreak your ipad (be careful with iOS4), install OpenSSH through Cydia and connect to localhost with iSSH. There are for example apache, vi, ruby, python, grep and awk. Can that scratch your itch? * Not really hacking but you can install Frotz for text adventuring in interactive fiction. * Buy an apple bluetooth keyboard and connect it to Android or the iPad for easier typing.

ssamuli 15 years ago | |

This is something that I've already tried, I mean using iSSH to connect to localhost running OpenSSH, but in the default system there's really nothing to play with. And I haven't found how and from where to install any UNIX-utilities, editors or applications for iPad. Any pointers on where to get these?

davidjhall 15 years ago |

Hmm...lacking internet connectivity is a pain. I love using zingersoft iSSH and the Apple wireless keyboard ($69) -- I connect to my remote Linux servers and am coding in Python right away.

gte910h 15 years ago |

You can actually jailbreak the iPad and have a fully functioning unix environment there.

Python scripting environment on the Android phone isn't half bad.

meursault 15 years ago |

If you like hacking in Lua, I've been enjoying Luna. It's a little IDE with an embedded Lua interpreter. The interface is weird but it works.

ssamuli 15 years ago | |

Thanks! Will have to check that out.

joeld42 15 years ago |

This is one of the rare cases where bringing a netbook is a better idea than an iPad.