iPad Version

@Norm any update on a port to an iPad version?

I hope Norm doesn’t look at this as a priority.

There’s a lot of work involved.

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I don’t think it’s a priority as much as a convenience and potential large user base considering all the new features and capabilities rolling out for iPad OS. It would be a game changer. Happy to help.

It would be a lot of work. I make iPad apps.

My guess is that this would be more likely once Apple moves to Arm processors on desktop as well, but I imagine @pauland could clarify whether that would help or not. Probably a few years from now if ever.

The processors don’t matter. The iPad is a smaller form factor and you have to consider that people’s fingers are not so precise as a mouse, so you can’t just use a desktop interface on an iPad.

There’s a number of other issues as well, but we won’t go there!

I’m sure Norm will make his own choices.

I hope they do look at this as a priority. I’ve been playing with the iPad as a small-scale part-time solution for development of all types, and whipping up a prototype in a Blocs version on an iPad as far as it can go would be delightful; then develop further on another device, much like pro-videographers, designers, UX, creators, etc. have been utilizing tablets more and more so now (ask me how I know). Especially now with the Magic Keyboard making things even more precise and quick (ask me how I know). There are certainly ways to optimize for the iPad interface that can be smart.

For reference, simply look at offerings from Procreate, Affinity (Photo and Designer) and Luma Touch (LumaFusion); they’ve done a fantastic job of creating a touch-specific apps that do quite well. There’s even Pythonista Working Copy, et al.

iOS gets us 80% of the way there, and sometimes that’s enough.

The processors most likely matter, as there might be libraries not available for the Intel platform. I don’t think they will re-create all the macOS libraries for the ARM based platform.

I haven’t used a non Swift library for years, though I agree that there are some vestiges of the Objective-C libraries clinging on in there. Given the turbulence caused by Swift changes over the years I think that developers will be fine.

In terms of macOS and arm, there’s been a transition towards closer integration for years with IOS and now IOS app releases are 64 bit only so really it’s been continual change at Apple.

I’m really not thinking that it’s such a big deal for the average developer who will be using high-level languages and little dependence on legacy code.

I’m sure the move towards ARM isn’t keeping Norm awake at night.

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Yes you’re right but they have engineered their offerings for a small touch screen and that’s a substantial development investment. If you take blocs development investment in that direction you aren’t growing it in other directions.

I think the development teams for Procreate and Affinity, etc have rather greater resources than blocsapp. Luma touch has ten people. Savage Interactive say they have 11-50 people. Affinity is part of Serif.

Is there really enough spare development time for blocsapp to do this? Maybe there is. Only Norm knows.

Really!, It’s such a fast app. Im not a huge fan of the UI, but then, its got to be tricky to figure that out for such an app.

In case there’s any confusion - those ten don’t all code - there’s a lot of them involved with business support around the product.

I have no inside knowledge of the company - I just looked on their website.

Yeah I figured that. Just insight to the size of companies. Many small companies achieve such great apps.

And some large companies produce some really shoddy apps, but I am not pointing my finger at Microsoft or Adobe in case anybody was wondering…

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The definition of “consistent” :rofl:

To be fair they have just changed direction after 25 years of building useless web browsers and switched to Chromium instead.

We can be grateful to seeing the end of IE hacks.

I did hear something, haven’t looked into it though, that Windows was moving to a Linux kernel or something ???

Yup, there are major contributors who aren’t necessarily the core coders. Larger companies often suck at user experience and forgo usability chasing business (which is not necessarily a terrible thing, just a myopic one). cough Microsoft ca. 1990s cough

So tablet/touch interfaces may not be the most ideal development interface, but it’s definitely a useful one. And agile, nimble smaller companies do well to shift and adapt new business models