This isn't a cop out, but you have to understand that my clients wouldn't be happy if I released their internal docs and such to the world:)
However I can point to this site for my own company. Roughly 60% (maybe a bit more) of that was written on the iPad. I used the app Koder to do the work, because it has Dropbox support. I created the project in IntelliJ IDEA, and then whenever I wanted to go outside the house to work, I would grab the iPad. Then I would come home and work on my laptop.
It was also a chance to test out Koder, which was fine. I mostly use Gusto, but it lacks Dropbox support, alas.
When I write documents, I either use Elements and write in markdown for things that don't require a lot of formatting. I personally think markdown is unwieldy beyond basic formatting, but that is just me. When I need to do more complex formatting I will use QuickOffice, Pages, or when document fidelity is primary I remote desktop into a VM I have running at home (but that isn't very often).
Mindmapping is an amazing experience on the iPad using iThoughtsHD (and don't use a keyboard), I used to find it annoying on a desktop os. On the tablet you have a direct connection to your concepts, I find I am more free and playful with moving and rearranging ideas and concepts. Again I wish I could show you some but their either whole deeply personal information, or my clients information. They also just look like mindmaps;)
For diagramming I use OmniGraffle. While more limited than its desktop version, I find it to be easier and more fluid to create the diagrams I create.
When I just want to play with algorithms or sketch in code, I will use iLuaBox Pro. Lua isn't my favorite language but it is very good for working out ideas.
For spreadsheets I use Numbers or QuickOffice. Keynote is the only thing I use for presentations.
For quick photo editing I use Naked Touch. For vector images I use TouchDraw. I also use Photoshop Touch, but not as much as I thought I would. I use iSSH for SSH, VNC, and remote Desktop. I don't have cause to do remote X Windows, but it can do that too.
And when I am back home I use AirDisplay to turn the iPad into a second monitor.
Again it might not be the right answer for most people, but it is for me.
Did I say it was anything other than an anecdote? Someone said (without data themselves) that the iPad sucked at content creation. I just offered an example. I have never claimed my experience was typical, simply that his wasn't universal.
Most — between 70 and 80% of the time if I had to hazard a guess — of the time when doing text based things, there are number of things on my list that don't require a keyboard at all. Mindmapping is so direct and fluid on the iPad that simply can't use my laptop to do it at all; and I don't use an external keyboard when doing that.
I don't view this as cheating, or a failure of the iPad. I see it as a strength, the fact that it can (near seamlessly) adapt to the best way to work at a given moment. And if we are talking blasphemy: I am very intrigued by the MS Surface's keyboard cover, and the fact that it can act like a pointing device.
Live by the pointing stick, die by the pointing stick
If size, weight, battery life, OS, adaptability (IE using a keyboard or not) aren't a paradigm shift I don't know what is. The only difference between a mainframe and a laptop is size, weight, portability, and the OS.
I am sorry I didn't realize I had to mention that. It is an option available to all users of the iPad, including the one who said it sucked at content creation. Indeed may of the people replying to me assumed I was using an external keyboard. You will also notice that a number of my use cases I mention don't use the keyboard at all.
But some clarifications. I don't carry a dock, I carry a small plastic stand (which is a part of the keyboard). But the exact same effect can be had by placing a pen on the table and laying the iPad on that.
It's like saying that a phone is perfectly adequate development device, after I plug it into a dock and attach my massive LCD screens, and USB mouse and keyboard. At that stage, what device is processing the input for all those devices is irrelevant.
No it isn't. It isn't something unusual. It isn't a hack. It is a standard option for the iPad and has been for a very long time.
Nobody's claiming that these devices don't have the capacity, or the speed, or whatever, to perform productive tasks.
Yes they are. Go back and look at the posts in this thread. Again many of them are assuming I am using an external keyboard, and still say the iPad sucks at content creation.
You still make it sound like I am making a sacrifice, and what I am saying is that I am not. It is a different form of UX, but it isn't a lesser one.
Even before my disability I didn't like to carry big heavy bags with me, or full laptops. I did, I just didn't like. I am as sure as I can be that I would have gravitated to the iPad anyway. It is, for me, a better way to work. Just accept that.
There is one other thing you should realize about/. moderation. It is a lot like wikipedia. While an article is active some posts can be quite volatile. As I write this my original post is back up to a 2. So no harm actually done. It may go up to a three, it probably won't. I frankly think it was about a 2-3 post (hey they all can't be winners).
In wikipedia you see lots of flaws and inaccuracies, but eventually things get better, mostly, for most of it. Tomorrow this whole thing will be forgotten by most people. In a week it will be irrelevant.
There is a difference between better for you, and better for everyone.
If you want to say there is one definitive better way to write for everyone, you are going to have to back that up with real data. My point it is subjective. People like me may be the minority, but we are real and out there. Please don't assume we are somehow deluding ourselves.
I have bone spurs in my neck, shoulders, and spine. Oh and in one of my hips as well. Every gram counts. I carry a small folding bluetooth keyboard with full sized keys. It has a little snap off stand that I use to prop up the ipad.
Well it isn't uncommon to have proxy dailies that are much smaller for that reason. But there are also software to view the originals without storing them on the ipad directly
I frankly don't think there is that much diversity on/. We are mostly technical, more male than female, mostly middle class, most of us went to college, etc. I am not as sure about race, but I would not be shocked to find out it was mostly white.
Then factor in that only a small subset of users ever post at all (don't remember the percentage, but it was mentioned once and it was tiny).
So the people are post end up becoming a self selected group from a self selected group. It isn't shocking that most of them think along similar lines.
90% of the novel I wrote was on the bus and train coming to and coming back from work. I have a lovely park half a block down my street, and a number of coffeeshops within three hours of my house. I have a form of early onset arthritis which means I have to see the doctor regularly, and get a 3 hour IV every 6 weeks. My hospital and Dr's offices all have free wifi.
Every single thing I said in my original post is 100% true. I am sorry you think I was lying, but I can't help that.
I am also not saying I am typical, but I am not the only I know like this. My wife's best friend only takes her iPad with her on business trips (about 100 days out of the year) and uses it far more than I do. I know a few other people who are using the iPad the same way I am. We may be a minority, but we are real.
OOO look I am -1 flamebait now. I think that is the first time that has happened to me. I shall treasure it like the day I got perfect karma.:)
No the moderation to my post doesn't bother me. Franky I think there are too many moderation types. I think there should be only two: this adds to the conversation/this detracts from the conversation. After that there should be some tags you can apply: troll, funny, rathole, ontopic, etc.
Then I could could ask to see all ontopic, not funny (because they never are actually funny), posts rated 3 or above./. would seem like a much more interesting place that way.
That being said, I probably still would have been downvoted, because/.'ers are still/.'ers:D
Did I say that I forced myself? No. Are something a little harder on the iPad? Yes. Are other things easier and more efficient? Yes.
It isn't some net loss that people then grudgingly accept. For some people, like myself, using a tablet instead of a laptop/desktop is a real benefit. It might not the case for you, but please don't paint everyone with the same brush.
For me it is like when I moved to a thinkpad with a trackpoint. I couldn't use it in the same way as I used a mouse or a touchpad. It was frustrating and hard to use. Then I realized I could make a curving motion and get to the point I wanted. Once I did that I was about as efficient with the trackpoint.
When I am writing on the iPad I just tap close to where I want to be, and I don't obsess about accuracy. Why? Because my hands move back to the keyboard and I quickly move to the right place. I am rarely more than a couple of characters off. I tend to select text with the keyboard more often as well.
The Lua IDE Codea has a kind of touch mouse feature on their virtual keyboard that is a joy to use and I hope apple adopts in some way. Most of my graphics apps have some kind of alignment or gravity feature so I don't have to worry that using my finger might be less efficient.
I use each UI in the best way I can, but I am not making some kind of sacrifice to use the iPad.
Because for about a year now I haven't taken my laptop out of the house, and mostly using it for programming, and photo editing. I have spent all this time writing fiction, poetry, outlines, technical documentation, etc; built websites, created diagrams (I prefer using OmniGraffle on the iPad to the desktop version); doing some light experimenting in Lua; making graphics and other things... all because no one told me it sucked at creating content.
But now that you told me, it is all ruined. I will have to lug around the laptop, aggravate the bone spurs in my neck and shoulders, have to put up with shorter battery life, and all that.
I was referring to the UK law (and should have been more clear) as an object lesson that you cannot assume that what is true in the US holds true for the rest of the world...
Not quite. Deathworld is in the public domain because it copyrighted under the pre 1976 copyright law, and was (apparently) never renewed. Pre-1976 books are minefield to figure out if they are in the public domain or not.
In order to be sure they are in the public domain, in the US, you need to do careful research, or the book has to have been copyrighted in 1923 or before. The UK and the rest of the world have different laws, so don't assume they carry over.
Oh and Peter Pan will likely never be in the public domain...
Big bucks? Textmate is $50, that is cheap, especially for software that you rely on. Visual SlickEdit is $300 a seat, Multi-Edit costs about the same, Kedit is "just" $130, and Vedit is the most reasonable of that lot at $90 These along with Brief (about $200 IIRC) were the workhorses of professional development 15-20 years ago.
Texmate is an editor to rival most on that list (thought it lacks a couple of features I would love to see, and isn't great with huge files), is very reasonably priced, especially considering that it has gotten you free updates for years.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't a cop out, but you have to understand that my clients wouldn't be happy if I released their internal docs and such to the world :)
However I can point to this site for my own company. Roughly 60% (maybe a bit more) of that was written on the iPad. I used the app Koder to do the work, because it has Dropbox support. I created the project in IntelliJ IDEA, and then whenever I wanted to go outside the house to work, I would grab the iPad. Then I would come home and work on my laptop.
It was also a chance to test out Koder, which was fine. I mostly use Gusto, but it lacks Dropbox support, alas.
When I write documents, I either use Elements and write in markdown for things that don't require a lot of formatting. I personally think markdown is unwieldy beyond basic formatting, but that is just me. When I need to do more complex formatting I will use QuickOffice, Pages, or when document fidelity is primary I remote desktop into a VM I have running at home (but that isn't very often).
Mindmapping is an amazing experience on the iPad using iThoughtsHD (and don't use a keyboard), I used to find it annoying on a desktop os. On the tablet you have a direct connection to your concepts, I find I am more free and playful with moving and rearranging ideas and concepts. Again I wish I could show you some but their either whole deeply personal information, or my clients information. They also just look like mindmaps ;)
For diagramming I use OmniGraffle. While more limited than its desktop version, I find it to be easier and more fluid to create the diagrams I create.
When I just want to play with algorithms or sketch in code, I will use iLuaBox Pro. Lua isn't my favorite language but it is very good for working out ideas.
For spreadsheets I use Numbers or QuickOffice. Keynote is the only thing I use for presentations.
For quick photo editing I use Naked Touch. For vector images I use TouchDraw. I also use Photoshop Touch, but not as much as I thought I would. I use iSSH for SSH, VNC, and remote Desktop. I don't have cause to do remote X Windows, but it can do that too.
And when I am back home I use AirDisplay to turn the iPad into a second monitor.
Again it might not be the right answer for most people, but it is for me.
Did I say it was anything other than an anecdote? Someone said (without data themselves) that the iPad sucked at content creation. I just offered an example. I have never claimed my experience was typical, simply that his wasn't universal.
Most — between 70 and 80% of the time if I had to hazard a guess — of the time when doing text based things, there are number of things on my list that don't require a keyboard at all. Mindmapping is so direct and fluid on the iPad that simply can't use my laptop to do it at all; and I don't use an external keyboard when doing that.
I don't view this as cheating, or a failure of the iPad. I see it as a strength, the fact that it can (near seamlessly) adapt to the best way to work at a given moment. And if we are talking blasphemy: I am very intrigued by the MS Surface's keyboard cover, and the fact that it can act like a pointing device.
Live by the pointing stick, die by the pointing stick
If size, weight, battery life, OS, adaptability (IE using a keyboard or not) aren't a paradigm shift I don't know what is. The only difference between a mainframe and a laptop is size, weight, portability, and the OS.
I give you the right to the last word...
No that was the massive amount of morphine I have to take every day.
Sorry all true. Please consult the post where I assert what I am saying is true. Also why are technical docs the thing that cause your incredulity?
I am sorry I didn't realize I had to mention that. It is an option available to all users of the iPad, including the one who said it sucked at content creation. Indeed may of the people replying to me assumed I was using an external keyboard. You will also notice that a number of my use cases I mention don't use the keyboard at all.
But some clarifications. I don't carry a dock, I carry a small plastic stand (which is a part of the keyboard). But the exact same effect can be had by placing a pen on the table and laying the iPad on that.
No it isn't. It isn't something unusual. It isn't a hack. It is a standard option for the iPad and has been for a very long time.
Yes they are. Go back and look at the posts in this thread. Again many of them are assuming I am using an external keyboard, and still say the iPad sucks at content creation.
Sorry I didn't mean "three hours" I meant "three miles". Being in Portland, OR I have a metric ton of coffee places within three hours of my house...
You still make it sound like I am making a sacrifice, and what I am saying is that I am not. It is a different form of UX, but it isn't a lesser one.
Even before my disability I didn't like to carry big heavy bags with me, or full laptops. I did, I just didn't like. I am as sure as I can be that I would have gravitated to the iPad anyway. It is, for me, a better way to work. Just accept that.
There is one other thing you should realize about /. moderation. It is a lot like wikipedia. While an article is active some posts can be quite volatile. As I write this my original post is back up to a 2. So no harm actually done. It may go up to a three, it probably won't. I frankly think it was about a 2-3 post (hey they all can't be winners).
In wikipedia you see lots of flaws and inaccuracies, but eventually things get better, mostly, for most of it. Tomorrow this whole thing will be forgotten by most people. In a week it will be irrelevant.
This is /. for good and ill
There is a difference between better for you, and better for everyone.
If you want to say there is one definitive better way to write for everyone, you are going to have to back that up with real data. My point it is subjective. People like me may be the minority, but we are real and out there. Please don't assume we are somehow deluding ourselves.
I have bone spurs in my neck, shoulders, and spine. Oh and in one of my hips as well. Every gram counts. I carry a small folding bluetooth keyboard with full sized keys. It has a little snap off stand that I use to prop up the ipad.
Well it isn't uncommon to have proxy dailies that are much smaller for that reason. But there are also software to view the originals without storing them on the ipad directly
I did in my original post, but just to make it more clear: battery life, lightness, portability, all things that aid me with my increasing disability
I mean, thank god people don't use their phones for that kind of thing...
I frankly don't think there is that much diversity on /. We are mostly technical, more male than female, mostly middle class, most of us went to college, etc. I am not as sure about race, but I would not be shocked to find out it was mostly white.
Then factor in that only a small subset of users ever post at all (don't remember the percentage, but it was mentioned once and it was tiny).
So the people are post end up becoming a self selected group from a self selected group. It isn't shocking that most of them think along similar lines.
90% of the novel I wrote was on the bus and train coming to and coming back from work. I have a lovely park half a block down my street, and a number of coffeeshops within three hours of my house. I have a form of early onset arthritis which means I have to see the doctor regularly, and get a 3 hour IV every 6 weeks. My hospital and Dr's offices all have free wifi.
Every single thing I said in my original post is 100% true. I am sorry you think I was lying, but I can't help that.
I am also not saying I am typical, but I am not the only I know like this. My wife's best friend only takes her iPad with her on business trips (about 100 days out of the year) and uses it far more than I do. I know a few other people who are using the iPad the same way I am. We may be a minority, but we are real.
OOO look I am -1 flamebait now. I think that is the first time that has happened to me. I shall treasure it like the day I got perfect karma. :)
No the moderation to my post doesn't bother me. Franky I think there are too many moderation types. I think there should be only two: this adds to the conversation/this detracts from the conversation. After that there should be some tags you can apply: troll, funny, rathole, ontopic, etc.
Then I could could ask to see all ontopic, not funny (because they never are actually funny), posts rated 3 or above. /. would seem like a much more interesting place that way.
That being said, I probably still would have been downvoted, because /.'ers are still /.'ers :D
Did I say that I forced myself? No. Are something a little harder on the iPad? Yes. Are other things easier and more efficient? Yes.
It isn't some net loss that people then grudgingly accept. For some people, like myself, using a tablet instead of a laptop/desktop is a real benefit. It might not the case for you, but please don't paint everyone with the same brush.
For me it is like when I moved to a thinkpad with a trackpoint. I couldn't use it in the same way as I used a mouse or a touchpad. It was frustrating and hard to use. Then I realized I could make a curving motion and get to the point I wanted. Once I did that I was about as efficient with the trackpoint.
When I am writing on the iPad I just tap close to where I want to be, and I don't obsess about accuracy. Why? Because my hands move back to the keyboard and I quickly move to the right place. I am rarely more than a couple of characters off. I tend to select text with the keyboard more often as well.
The Lua IDE Codea has a kind of touch mouse feature on their virtual keyboard that is a joy to use and I hope apple adopts in some way. Most of my graphics apps have some kind of alignment or gravity feature so I don't have to worry that using my finger might be less efficient.
I use each UI in the best way I can, but I am not making some kind of sacrifice to use the iPad.
Because for about a year now I haven't taken my laptop out of the house, and mostly using it for programming, and photo editing. I have spent all this time writing fiction, poetry, outlines, technical documentation, etc; built websites, created diagrams (I prefer using OmniGraffle on the iPad to the desktop version); doing some light experimenting in Lua; making graphics and other things... all because no one told me it sucked at creating content.
But now that you told me, it is all ruined. I will have to lug around the laptop, aggravate the bone spurs in my neck and shoulders, have to put up with shorter battery life, and all that.
Gee thanks
I was referring to the UK law (and should have been more clear) as an object lesson that you cannot assume that what is true in the US holds true for the rest of the world...
Not quite. Deathworld is in the public domain because it copyrighted under the pre 1976 copyright law, and was (apparently) never renewed. Pre-1976 books are minefield to figure out if they are in the public domain or not.
In order to be sure they are in the public domain, in the US, you need to do careful research, or the book has to have been copyrighted in 1923 or before. The UK and the rest of the world have different laws, so don't assume they carry over.
Oh and Peter Pan will likely never be in the public domain...
Big bucks? Textmate is $50, that is cheap, especially for software that you rely on. Visual SlickEdit is $300 a seat, Multi-Edit costs about the same, Kedit is "just" $130, and Vedit is the most reasonable of that lot at $90 These along with Brief (about $200 IIRC) were the workhorses of professional development 15-20 years ago.
Texmate is an editor to rival most on that list (thought it lacks a couple of features I would love to see, and isn't great with huge files), is very reasonably priced, especially considering that it has gotten you free updates for years.
Only one who has so far ;)
Yes for the love of god I made a typo, one that lots of people make all the time. Good for you.