Fast and free multi-language code editor for Android

Fast and free multi-language code editor for Android(github.com)

42 points by timeoperator 2 years ago | 22 comments

kevmo314 2 years ago |

https://vscode.dev/ actually works as a progressive web app and you can tunnel into your remote machines to get the full VS Code experience.

It definitely has its quirks though so a bluetooth keyboard is probably quite necessary for anything besides a few minor edits.

albntomat0 2 years ago |

As a suggestion, I think you could state more strongly that this is a code editor that runs on Android, rather than a code editor for things that run on Android.

The demo photos definitely cleared it up for me, but the build instructions at the beginning for Mac/Linux/Windows seemed to contribute to the issue.

Cool project!

moron4hire 2 years ago |

There used to be a lot of different code editor and coding environment projects on Android in the first few years it came out. What happened?

analog31 2 years ago | |

I can only relate my own experience. I got excited about coding on Android, and bought a tablet when the first version came out that supported Python. It turned out that coding on the tiny screen was a chore, even with a keyboard, programming Android was harder than I expected, and... the biggest thing was that since the start of the smart phone era, I simply haven't had a good enough idea for an app.

lelanthran 2 years ago | | |

> the biggest thing was that since the start of the smart phone era, I simply haven't had a good enough idea for an app.

Doesn't matter if you do, some dodgy company in a foreign country will happily wrap your app in ads and somehow be higher in the search results than your app[1].

If it's a really good idea, someone like Zynga will simply write a polished clone and make millions off your idea while your original app still doesn't show up in the search results.[2] Or anywhere, for that matter.

[1] I wrote an app in 2012 or thereabouts and this happened to me. I don't know if it is still possible.

[2] See how well they did this with Angry Birds.

RadiozRadioz 2 years ago |

> Prerequisites: At least 1,11GB of free disk space: 144,7MB for source codes and around 965,3MB for files generated after building all variants

What?

lol768 2 years ago | |

I assume the author of that README is from continental Europe and the decimal separator that has been used is a comma.

RadiozRadioz 2 years ago | | |

Yes, I assumed so. The alarming part is not the formatting of the numbers, but that there's 145MB of source code and almost a GB of build artefacts... for an Android text editor. That's more code than PostgreSQL.

xcjs 2 years ago |

A lot of code editors for Android are almost identical, and it makes me think that they're all forked from the same base project, including this one.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rhmsoft.co...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foxdebug.a...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rhmsoft.ed...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.spck

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alif.ide

I've been looking for a good mobile editor for quite a minute, and they all practically have the same UI and features.

I did just discover a port of VSCode, though: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.environmen...

prhrb 2 years ago | |

They are not really identical and forked from the same base project, they may have similar features. Acode is foss,built using cordova and JS tech,has its own plugin system. Squircle is also foss and built using kotlin. Vscode for android is just code server inside web view wrapper or browser and embedded git. I can't speak for the other ones as they are proprietary.

xcjs 2 years ago | | |

I understand that VSCode is different, hence the "though" part of my sentence.

The remaining examples are all almost identical, though.

vanous 2 years ago |

Fdroid says that not all of the code is free... What are the closed portions, anyone knows?

Edit: this seems to be due to (removed for fdroid) google integration. Feels strange... Author removes a Google library for fdroid release but is still being punished be the antifeature.

jonas-w 2 years ago | |

https://github.com/massivemadness/Squircle-CE/issues/182

It contains a google library, but can't find what exact library they are referring to, as the link they've provided is dead.

EDIT: Found it in an old commit from around that time the comment was made https://github.com/massivemadness/Squircle-CE/blob/1818d3904...

A googleplay "appupdate" library, I don't have knowledge about App development, but I don't see how this library is needed in the fdroid version?

lostmsu 2 years ago | | |

It seems to not be needed or used. My take from the thread is that F-Droid complains about the library reference present in the source code at all. It does not know the library is not linked in the F-Droid build.

amadeuspagel 2 years ago |

The problem with coding on the phone is the editing experience. Phone keyboards aren't made to edit code. The only thing this editor does to improve that is to show a bunch of special characters above the standard keyboard[1]. That keyboard also has its own autocomplete function, which doesn't make sense in the context of a code editor. A code editor for the phone should implement its own keyboard.

[1]: https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/ihz5t_M6QeHCMiHkCz9ZAx...

bitwize 2 years ago | |

A lot of the keyboard problems on Android wrt coding, etc. can be enormously mitigated by downloading and using Hacker's Keyboard:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...

It's pretty much a must for things like Termux.

amadeuspagel 2 years ago | | |

But I guess that isn't ideal for things other then coding and doesn't offer any kind of integration, like autocomplete.