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Is coding possible on smart phones ?

1d 13h ago by nord.pub/u/TheViking in nostupidquestions

Coding is normally done on the desktop, as the keyboard provides special keys. The keyboard of android phones is usually limited in this respect.

Is coding possible smart phones at all ?

Sure it's possible. It's also possible to cut an acre of grassland with scissors. Both are terrible ideas.

possible to cut an acre of grassland with scissors.

Never heard that. What's all this modern nonsense? Traditionally you have to use a nail clipper!

Coding on an old flip phone with a 10-key keyboard would be analogous to cutting the field with nail clippers.

I only code on T9 keyboards.

I write binaries via telegram.

And trim the trees with a herring.

This reminds me of a research project I did in university (I studied ecology).
The goal was to find out how much food geese need during migration.
You can't weigh them before and after they feed.
So we went to a meadow they always frequent on their migration path.
And then we used a ruler to measure the length of every single blade of grass, before and after they fed.

We also collected what they left behind.
Like coding on a phone, it was fowl shit.

*fowl shit

damn, thanks. corrected it.

It’s also possible to cut an acre of grassland with scissors.

Honestly, I'm not sure it is. The scissors might get dull and stop being able to cut before you finish. (Grasses often incorporate silica into their structure to grind down the teeth of animals that try to eat it and thus discourage them from eating too much.)

Is your lawnmower "laser-based" or something ? 🤔

Lawn mowers rely more on speed than sharpness. Even an extremely worn lawnmower blade will still cut grass if you give it enough RPM. They also have a lot more mass to be worn away than a pair of scissors.

You can sharpen scissors too...

The main limitation is your input device, attach a keyboard and a monitor and you should be able to program on anything

Yeah, lol. Bluetooth keyboard + USB-C display adapter connected to a larger monitor, and the phone becomes kind of usable for coding.

I have previously used my phone like this to run godot and it actually works well.

Yeah, Samsung's dex is pretty amazing for this (only on the high end gear, I believe). Suck its a Samsung value add, cos they're horroble devices

I've done the same thing on lineageos using xwindows. A little clunk to be sure. And the phone ran HOT, but it worked.

Nice! I didn't l know you could (never looked into it it).

We considered trying dex at work but the cost of the phones was so much more than a thin client it really wasn't worth it

Possible, yes. Pleasant, no.

I don't like editing a spreadsheet on my phone, or typing much at all. If I had a blackberry, they would be different.

I feel like you would get a RSI way quicker on a blackberry keyboard than on a normal keyboard tho

But that's just a gut feeling

if I had to use a mobile only, then a blackberry was amazing. but if I had a travel keyboard and a blackberry, I would keyboard.

I've done it before. Would I do it again given other options? Probably not, but it is doable

Brother, I used to write code on a TI-83+ calculator.

It can be done.

print ("Hello World")

I've been coding on my Android for 6 years now. At first it was with a native java editor for my programming 1 homework but then I discovered proot-distro for termux that allows you to run Linux distros as containers on Android.

I have debian 13 on my Android and use scrcpy to screen cast a secondary screen on desktop mode. It can be a bit slow sometimes but for java, JavaScript and python it's been alright. I know proot-distro can have issues with compiled languages like c and c++ but I haven't used those there since the semester we used cpp it was for SIMD and arm doesn't have the avx instructions.

There's a guy on GitHub called droidmaster that has the scripts to setup proot

Can you suggest any special keypad for Android phones, for coding purposes ?

I'm using this mouse /keyboard combo buts it's not very good, the mouse doesn't like to share paired and the keyboard doesn't have very good feedback Something like a k400 or a k480 from logi with a mouse would be better

Most android keyboards have all the special keys you need, they're just 2-3 clicks away instead of 1. Something like Unexpected Keyboard might be more convenient. But the small screen is a bigger problem than the keyboard. Of course it can be done, it's just a miserable experience.

Possible, yes. But an awful experience if you don't have a physical keyboard, even one of those cheap bluetooth ones. It's barely bearable if you have one, since the screen is still too small.

On Android, I can vouch for Acode and Xed-Editor, both available on F-droid, as code editors to help you program. Not ideal, but if you have no other option than using your phone to program, they're good choices.

It's like drawing with sticks and bat dung

It drives you batshit insane?

I've written some scripts on my phone with a software keyboard. Some CSS tweaking as well. I wouldn't want to do anything complex, though.

I highly recommend Unexpected Keyboard for things like that. I still wouldn't want to do more though, it's just not a productive coding environment.

https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard(F-Droid / Play Store)

Yes, and lots of people in lower income countries do so using a Bluetooth keyboard.

Absolutely. I use termux + a project called Andronix to install full Debian. After that you're off to the races. Install NVM, node, git, whatever. I use screen for tabbed terminals. I use one tab to run my node server and another to edit with vim.

Keyboards: as mentioned, Hacker keyboard, Unexpected keyboard, or Codeboard. Or you can attach a Bluetooth keyboard.

Everything just works. If you know vim and have patience, it's a lot of fun.

There are keyboards which provide more keys and layouts which can help (but take up more screen space).

Hackers keyboard was great, the replacement appears to be unexpected keyboard.

https://f-droid.org/packages/juloo.keyboard2

Remember a keyboard can steal all your info like passwords and usernames - make sure you trust it!

Or a flip keyboard like this is cool too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266795334818

What language do you use as gitlab and GitHub both have browser based editors these days.

On a Linux phone that's fast enough, it's a great experience. On any other sort of phone, not so much.

You do it on a smart phone ??

You can, attaching a Linux phone to an external monitor gives you a standard Linux desktop. Like Samsung DeX mode on steroids, since you can run desktop apps easily!

Termux can do a LOT, even with Android's heavy sandboxing. I've used anWriter before, to make websites and serverside JavaScript apps, and also just as a text editor.
I do also know there are ways to host VS Codium via a Linux VM in Termux and other ways to make the experience less awful.
A physical keyboard and mouse hooked up via USB OTG is also recommended.

Yes, but I've only done it for learning purposes. I wouldn't recommend it for any other reason.

Which keypad did you use ?

IIRC the app I was using had it's own so braces, curly braces and so on were easy to type

Is it available on fdroid ?

yes

I often find myself issuing a quick fix or something by pulling out my phone, opening Termux, remoting into a server with SSH, and editing a text file with something like Nano. That is, for all intents and purposes, coding. And it works well enough for that. I am generally familiar with the project via my time with it on desktop, so I know what small change I need to make and can do so quickly with just about any text editor. And even if I want to create an entire small script from scratch via my phone, I generally have the whole process mapped out in my head and just need to use the phone to type it out.

But anything that requires a lot of typing or screen space is generally better to do on desktop. Even though something could technically be achieved on a 6" screen using an onscreen keyboard, many things are simply more streamlined and effortless using multiple windows and a physical keyboard.

Which keypad do you use in your phone ?

I use Heliboard mainly, and then I have Unexpected Keyboard installed as well and switch to it on the rare occasion I run into something that is difficult to do with Heliboard.

Can you suggest a good replacement for vs code ?? Which is Foss ??

Linux:

Android:

Linux:

VSCodiun: https://vscodium.com/
Pulsar: https://pulsar-edit.dev/
Kate: https://kate-editor.org/

I can vouch for these; I asked around before and looked around for shiny linux native things, and just ended up with these instead.

I can also vouch for Yakuake if you want a nice terminal. it runs constantly and can pop down with a key combo.

Possible? Yes. But if you don't have a keyboard, it's a huge pain to type code. And, depending what you're building, it might be hard or impossible to treat your code locally.

Well, you can plug in a keyboard and use termux. I doubt it would be fun though.

Maybe with DroidVim for Android or with KDevelop on a Linux phone, yeah.

Apps exist, often with keyboard augmentation, but I don’t see it being useful for much more than touchups.

I've always wondered for compiled languages, but I'd imagine you'd need some sort of Linux compatibility.

It might be easier if you get more limited/creative, off the top of my head I suspect using something like TIC-80 might be viable. Doesn't quite interest me and I don't even have wired keyboard capability (not just keys, I don't think I could do much of anything at any appreciable speed/reliability on a virtual keyboard).

yes if you get used to the tiny touch keyboard and screen.. alternatively you can use a tablet and a proper keyboard

It's possible but a pain.

You can attach an external keyboard though

You can, but small upgrades go a long way. Upgrade path I'd go for is keyboard -> mouse -> monitor -> used pc/laptop.

Honestly though, if you're going to spend some money on it buying a used bargain bin laptop and installing Linux on it will be nice. Plenty of used laptops in $100-200 range are good enough.

It's possible to Google packages and stuff on your phone and message yourself so that when you finally get to a desk you can quickly implement your findings without distraction

*It's also possible to manage your infrastructure on the phone reasonably effectively, which is close to scratching the same itch?

Yes.