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Comment by prsimp | Hacker News Reader

It's not impossible to remain a creator while using an iPad (or other tablet) - at least not when it comes to development. There are certainly people who are happily developing on an iPad (albeit with a more powerful remote backend)[1]. I think we are likely to see even more of a shift in this direction as these devices become even more capable.

[1] http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-...

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Ok, granted, it seems to work but when you look at the configuration:

iPad 2 (16Gb, WiFi)

Apple wireless keyboard

Stilgut adjustable angle stand/case

iSSH

Linode 512 running Ubuntu 11.04

Apple VGA adapter

This is basically the same configuration as an iMac! I'll take an example, most of the programmers I know when doing some serious coding have 2+ monitors because it's always good to run on the side, get the result live. Or just because you need to compare two files. On such a small screen, it's close to impossible. Also for a programmer a lot of the wasted time is browsing through long files, with an ipad and, again, a small screen = nightmare.

This is just not really that serious. There is not going to be widespread adoption of serious programmers doing this in anger. I promise. It's not going to happen. It's fitting a square peg in a round hole. This attitude wants me to have this overly complicated setup to have a really horrible version of what I can do swimmingly well with a little Thinkpad or whatever notebook you like. Done and done. No nonsense.

To be fair , that one article is the only evidence I have seen thus far of anybody using an iPad as their primary development machine.

Wonder how he is getting on with it?

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