Even with the sandboxed emulator above, it’s not useful at all. Obviously, there is no way to develop on an iPad Pro. From there I started digging into the settings.īefore I go and show some of the important stuff, we need to first create a remote workstation which we can start using as our main development machine. I started to explore the commands and found a config command, that would open the settings for Blink.sh. Initially, even for me as an experienced terminal user, I didn’t know what to do. There is no documentation, no obvious settings, etc. However, there are a couple of commands that are very useful (i.e: scp) and I’ll show later in the blog post how I’m using it in conjunction with other iOS apps.Īfter firing up Blink, it greets you with a blank terminal and a shell prompt. It includes the following commands:Īs you see there is tons of stuff you can start using, but it’s not a full featured OS, which means you’re very limited to what you can use. Blink.sh is a Terminal Emulator and has sandboxed local terminal access, which you can use for basic stuff.

The first thing I started doing was to install Blink.sh and experimenting with it. I wanted to see if I could test, write and deploy my day-to-day projects. This was a perfect excuse for me to try out the new iPad Pro and experiment with it. I had a MacBook Pro 13.3”, it belongs now to my wife. Grab a coffee ☕️ and let’s deep dive into it!

Afterwards I’ll share and review the various bits of using an iPad Pro (photo and file management, keyboard, pencil, apps, accessories, etc.) First I’ll share my experiences using it as a development machine, scripts I’m using and my whole workstation setup. I think Apple is onto something here and I want to see if it holds up or not. The number one reason I bought the iPad Pro is, not just to have an excellent and powerful mobile device, I also wanted to explore new possibilities with all these new input devices, new ways of creating stuff. If you think about a second, with the touchscreen, you have three different ways of creating something new, and what to do is only left to our imagination. However, the iPad has improved a lot and has two new ways of interactions that are now a first-class citizen in the iPad ecosystem: I know that many people (including me) are using it already for so many years. One of the things he talks about is how we should look into new mediums to unleash our creativity, to create “things” that were not possible before. I’m a huge fan of Bret Victor and try to immerse myself with his ideas, papers, and videos. I bought an 11” iPad Pro to use it as my main development machine.

Using the iPad Pro as my development machine January 7, 2019

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