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Leaker Claims Mobile Version of Xcode Coming to iPad

Frobozz said:
This is very exciting! Might I also venture that this clears the way for ARM processors deeper into the Apple lineup, too? If you can run Xcode on an ARM processor that means possible cross compiling to ARM Macs and iOS / iPad OS / AppleTV, etc. VERY interesting news.

For what it’s worth, my iPad 12.9” is my favorite Mac at the moment!
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This is a good point. Apple, unlike most companies, usually disrupts itself instead of allowing others to do so. The obvious examples are iPods to iPhones and iPads. Anyone that uses an iPad and takes it half seriously knows the potential for it to ultimately disrupt the old guard. I think we’ve all wondered how long it would take for iOS / iPadOS to become the dominant player. When the lines are blurred, it’s ultimately a good thing for consumers and for Apple’s financial health to not be left in the dust. It is slowly taking place and they’re placing bets all along the way to more portable computing and wearables.
Click to expand...
Love my 2018 12.9 iPad. Aside from lightroom on the iPad not being able to mimic lightroom classics ability to read from external drives (not sure if an Apple limitation or and adobe limitation), I could do without my 32gb 6 core 2018 Mac mini. As it is it’s not even connected to a monitor. I VNC into it, and then use sidecar on my iPad.
I have a Logitec Mx anywhere mouse and a logitec somethingorother keyboard - both enable Bluetooth host switching on the fly, which I use for them both.
I also have and use a pencil, and a matte paperlike screen protector.
This is- without a doubt- the future of computing. It’s such a pleasure to use and unfortunately macos feels so very oldschool in comparison.
there is so much potential for ipados, and it has so much room to grow. And it is growing fast.
I’m a professional photographer. Aside the limitation I mentioned at the start regarding lightroom, everything I need to do for my business can be achieved just as easily with my iPad, and the editing of the photographs is just such a pleasure on the machine.
I can design and create my website, brainstorm ideas, contact my clients, create flyers and graphical promotions - really everything. Most of these are simply a pleasure with the iPad, rather than sometimes a chore with my mac.
I also have a disk station, so most of what I’m saying doesn’t necessarily mean an iPad can replace everything just yet, but to not see it (or something similar) as the future is absurdly naive.
 
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recoil80 said:
I don't expect the same experience macOS can offer. They may port Xcode to the iPad, but what if your build scripts require python or ruby or shell scripts? We won't have full access to the file system, it would be a huge change in iPadOS and I don't expect that.
So it will be a "baby" version of Xcode. I'd say better than nothing, now we have Swift Playgrounds but is very limited. I wouldn't say no to the ability to edit my source in Xcode on an iPad, but I don't expect to be able to work only on iPadOS for the entire lifecycle of an iOS app. And I love big displays when it comes to coding, my laptop is the 16" and I use it with an external display whenever possible, so using only iPadOS would be out of question. But that's a personal preference more than a technical limitation. For a quick edit iPad would be sweet, so in the end it is a good news, but not a breakthrough.
Click to expand...

As there's already JavascripCore in iOS SDK, apple may add other cores like PythonCore, RubyCore or let open source project provide their core through appstore or via a dedicated packet manager, so that Python Software Foundation can bring their own PythonCore.
 
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cupcakes2000 said:
Love my 2018 12.9 iPad. Aside from lightroom on the iPad not being able to mimic lightroom classics ability to read from external drives (not sure if an Apple limitation or and adobe limitation), I could do without my 32gb 6 core 2018 Mac mini. As it is it’s not even connected to a monitor. I VNC into it, and then use sidecar on my iPad.
I have a Logitec Mx anywhere mouse and a logitec somethingorother keyboard - both enable Bluetooth host switching on the fly, which I use for them both.
I also have and use a pencil, and a matte paperlike screen protector.
This is- without a doubt- the future of computing. It’s such a pleasure to use and unfortunately macos feels so very oldschool in comparison.
there is so much potential for ipados, and it has so much room to grow. And it is growing fast.
I’m a professional photographer. Aside the limitation I mentioned at the start regarding lightroom, everything I need to do for my business can be achieved just as easily with my iPad, and the editing of the photographs is just such a pleasure on the machine.
I can design and create my website, brainstorm ideas, contact my clients, create flyers and graphical promotions - really everything. Most of these are simply a pleasure with the iPad, rather than sometimes a chore with my mac.
I also have a disk station, so most of what I’m saying doesn’t necessarily mean an iPad can replace everything just yet, but to not see it (or something similar) as the future is absurdly naive.
Click to expand...

Agree. Photoshop, Procreate etc. are a joy to use on the iPad. Even Keynote is much more usable on ipad with a pencil. So yes I can see Xcode in a SwiftUI / UX way first and then more fully fledged at a later date,
 
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citysnaps said:
Developers really want to design, code and debug apps using a 11/12" display? Not an app developer, but I'd much rather use the display of my 27" 5K iMac.
Click to expand...

You are alright it's way more comfortable, BUT a lot of people dev on Macbook air, so it can make sense to have XCode on an iPad 12.9"

Personally, I don't like to code on an iPad, even plugged to a screen and keyboard, I don't know why but I don't have a good sensation, already tried to do some Jupiter notebook on it ... always a bad experience, but it could be just me
 
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Well, iPads have a lot of cores. What if, Apple is planning running a Docker like container with a minimal and restricted MacOS in a container, without UI but with Xcode compilers? Then, there would be Xcode for iPads software that only calls APIs in the container? That way, you could code technically anything with iPads.

Why this came in to my mind? You can run containers in ARM powered Raspberry pi.
 
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This will be fun for kids tinkering around making iPhone apps in school. Can't see many pro devs using this in the near-term unless the iPad becomes a lot more capable or they make an even bigger version.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
No, but is that really necessary? It seems like the only two things I ever do in a terminal on a development machine are use it as a calculator or ssh into another system. Anything else that I do is something that could be done as a button in an IDE (possibly requiring a plugin to give me the button.)
Click to expand...

SSHing into another computer Ive found has always been easy, but that’s not the point of development, else we’d all be using VDIs.
 
I think it’s a mistake to think that Apple is just going to take XCode as is and port it.
iWork, iMovie, Garageband are not ports. The Music app is not iTunes. (For good and bad.) They re-made those apps for touch. They re-made the cursor in the new mouse support. Same with multitasking and multiwindow. Same with file behaviour in the Files app.

So I think if they bring XCode it would be created from the ground up for touch and for iOS development only. If you want to develop for the Mac, get a Mac. No Terminal, no scripts, no more than SwiftUI and only Swift. Only on iPad Pro and maybe with some RAM limitations.

As for the monitor as big as your wall, Federico Vittici spects enhanced external monitor support on iOS 14, so maybe you could display the iPad screen on that (you already can, but is limited).

So, maybe, just maybe this is the year we get this.
 
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Honestly, I expected it last year, but I’m glad to see this finally happen!

It’s been evident for some time that they were working on this. They have steadily rewritten core parts of Xcode (like the editor, the new build system, etc), and we’ve already seen some of those components come across to the iPad (the Swift playgrounds app uses the same editor as Xcode), as well as experiments like the coding virtual keyboard. The compiler obviously also runs on iOS, for the playgrounds app. It was only a matter of time before they pulled it together for a full version Xcode, given how powerful recent iPads are.

robbieduncan said:
See my posts before: I expect this to be a limited form of Xcode. Build iOS apps the way Apple want's you to build iOS apps. I'd go as far as saying this will be Swift only: no ObjC. And no scripts.
Click to expand...

hardly any useful libraries are pure Swift - at some point, they will call in to C/C++/Obj-C libraries. That’s what the operating system itself uses, so anything that’s not a pure algorithm/data structure and relies on OS functionality will need to Build and interop with libraries those languages.

in order to not split the ecosystem, and to support useful libraries, their tool chain will need to include Clang. If it includes Clang, there’s no reason to not also support C/C++/Obj-C. Many apps are built with a combination of Obj-C and Swift, and that’s a very important, supported use-case.

so I’m not expecting a “baby Xcode”, and it won’t be limited to Swift. Scripts are trickier, but I expect that to also be included. Of course it will be sandboxed, but if your application needs an important tool like the protobuf compiler, you’ll be able to build and run it to generate source files.
 
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ct2k7 said:
I don’t think it’ll be a full version, XCode is more than just a text editor with semantic analysis.

I wonder how they plan to implement this, as the article says it’d be a huge undertaking.
Click to expand...

maybe, or maybe not ...with the idea now that a keyboard can be used via Bluetooth, perhaps this would be extended to older gens. as well.

Convience aside, you'd still need to put it back on the Mac to build, or are you gonna do it on on iOS ? I can see the development part may be ok... but that's about it. It's still interesting.. no need to develop from Mac at the min.

The more see just how much extra stuff Apple's doing hardware support etc.. the more i see Apple is really wanting iOS to replace a Mac.. It's getting there, but slowly.... Challenges a long the way, and often big ones.

But Apple's always been about security being tigher, so wonder where the linewill be drawn, or would everything in done in "emulation" somehow?
 
Will Xcode for iPad work with the $5000 Apple Pro Display XDR? If so that would be really cool! Does the iPad Pro have enough GPU for that?

www.apple.com

Pro Display XDR

Pro Display XDR. A new 32-inch Retina 6K display with extreme brightness, contrast, color accuracy, and HDR that transforms the way you work.
www.apple.com
 
springsup said:
Honestly, I expected it last year, but I’m glad to see this finally happen!

It’s been evident for some time that they were working on this. They have steadily rewritten core parts of Xcode (like the editor, the new build system, etc), and we’ve already seen some of those components come across to the iPad (the Swift playgrounds app uses the same editor as Xcode), as well as experiments like the coding virtual keyboard. The compiler obviously also runs on iOS, for the playgrounds app. It was only a matter of time before they pulled it together for a full version Xcode, given how powerful recent iPads are.



hardly any useful libraries are pure Swift - at some point, they will call in to C/C++/Obj-C libraries. That’s what the operating system itself uses, so anything that’s not a pure algorithm/data structure and relies on OS functionality will need to Build and interop with libraries those languages.

in order to not split the ecosystem, and to support useful libraries, their tool chain will need to include Clang. If it includes Clang, there’s no reason to not also support C/C++/Obj-C. Many apps are built with a combination of Obj-C and Swift, and that’s a very important, supported use-case.

so I’m not expecting a “baby Xcode”, and it won’t be limited to Swift. Scripts are trickier, but I expect that to also be included. Of course it will be sandboxed, but if your application needs an important tool like the protobuf compiler, you’ll be able to build and run it to generate source files.
Click to expand...

Pre-built libraries can be anything: they are binary files to be linked to. I mean I can imagine the compiler only building from swift. If you want to mix and match you may still need a Mac
 
mi7chy said:
It'll be cloud based Xcode and will require a subscription.
Click to expand...
I doubt that it will require a sub to get the app. They want as many people coding as possible. You’ll need to have a paid account to get it your app on the App Store like normal but that will be all.
 
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The more I think of it the more I can almost see this Xcode release as the specific reason for the new magic keyboard and trackpad.

*edit* though no escape key.... hmmm.
 
wilhoitm said:
Will Xcode for iPad work with the $5000 Apple Pro Display XDR? If so that would be really cool! Does the iPad Pro have enough GPU for that?

www.apple.com

Pro Display XDR

Pro Display XDR. A new 32-inch Retina 6K display with extreme brightness, contrast, color accuracy, and HDR that transforms the way you work.
www.apple.com
Click to expand...

The iPad Pro works with the XDR display, but only runs in 5k, IIRC.
 
cupcakes2000 said:
The more I think of it the more I can almost see this Xcode release as the specific reason for the new magic keyboard and trackpad.

*edit* though no escape key.... hmmm.
Click to expand...

You can remap the ESC key, but let's be honest this isn't a working setup you want to use for all day long. I'm sure the iPad with its keyboard is great while on the go, but at home if you need to code using an external display, a keyboard and a separate mouse/trackpad is way better for ergonomics.
Today I'm working on my 16" MBP on the living room table (not in my private room as usual) and after 2 hours I'm already feeling back discomfort. Tomorrow I'll go back to my usual setup with a 4K display and it will be way better.

The iPad supports an external display, but the problem is window management. If a future version of iPadOS will allow us to have more windows opened at the same time at least on an external display, the iPad will become really interesting as we'll be able to have a great tablet to use with a touchscreen, and a capable machine to use as a "regular" PC while connected to a display. With the ability to have more control on the file system I could see myself using only one device to do most of my job.
It will take years in my opinion to get there, I don't expect iOS 14 to address all the issues. But we'll get there eventually
 
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