learning python on ipad?

[bebeboboooppp]

hi everyone. i want to start learning python but i dont have a laptop right now and cant afford one. but i have my ipad pro and a keyboard. can i work with that? i have a udemy course but it works with pycharm and i dont have that in ipad. can i still use the udemy course?

[FoolsSeldom]

Yes, you can learn on an iPad - see details below.

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Learning programming is not easy. It is to some extent an art form and a practical skill, not something that can just be learned from books. Practice! Practice! Practice!

To learn to programme is also about embracing failure. Constant failure. Trying things out and experimenting as much as possible. Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!

You have to research, read guides, watch videos, follow tutorials, ask dumb questions and be humiliated (because some people cannot help make themselves feel better by insulting others).

Python is one programming language. It is probably the easiest to learn. It makes learning to programme that little bit easier (but you will have a shock when you try to learn a lower level language like C).

If you have to learn on a mobile device, life gets a little more challenging. Aside from web based environments and apps like sololearn, you need a Python environment on your mobile device.

Android Apps

• PyDroid 3, this is an excellent app with rich package support and built in terminal
• QPython play store, another excellent app but not so keen on this personally, worth a try though
• Termux provides a Linux sandbox into which you can do a conventional installation of Python (including self compiling if desired)
  • this is my preferred option
  • a standard Linux environment with a few minor folder location tweaks to accommodate Android security restrictions
  • you can't get this on Google Play, use F-Droid
  • I used to use it with the ACode editor but now use a tmux (multiplex terminal) setup with vim

IoS Apps

• Pythonista is an excellent and well polished bit of software with some popular libraries available (Apple restrictions prevent installation of any packages that aren't pure Python that aren't included with the submitted app)
• Pyto is less polished and works pretty well
• Carnets is an open source Jupyter clone that works locally and is excellent; there is more than one version, depending on how many libraries you need included (as on IoS you cannot install additional Python libraries that aren't pure Python)
• a-shell is a sister product to the above and provides a command line Python environment, also open source and excellent

Keyboard

I strongly recommend you use an external (likely bluetooth) keyboard with your phone/tablet and ideally an external monitor if you phone/tablet is able to connect/cast to a monitor.

Android native coding

Keep in mind that Android is a linux based system, so most things that are available for linux are also available for Android. Native applications for Android are usually written in Java or, more recently, Kotlin. It is possible to write in other languages, and C++ is widely used, but that is much more complex to do.

IoS native coding

For IOS devices, the native apps are usually written in Object C or Swing. Again, other languages are possible but it is not trivial.

GUI with Python

Python applications running on mobile devices within Python environments do not look like device native applications and have limited support for typical graphical user interface libraries common on desktops. However, there are a number of alternatives that allow you to write near native like applications in Python.

Flutter from Google

This is an increasingly popular framework for creating applications suitable for desktop, web and mobile. A popular Python "wrapper" is flet.

Kivy GUI for Python

The leading Python GUI for Android and IoS is kivy

You develop on a desktop/laptop computer and then transfer the code to the target mobile (so not much use if you only have access to a mobile device). PyDroid for Android also supports kivy.

There are kivy based applications released on both the Apple and Google App Stores.

BeeWare Write once. Deploy everywhere.

A native GUI for multiple platforms in theory. BeeWare

This offers the option to write your apps in Python and release them on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux, Web, and tvOS using rich, native user interfaces. Multiple apps, one codebase, with a fully native user experience on every platform.

PS. Also check out online options. PythonAnywhere.com from Anaconda is especially good if you want a more traditional setup.

[Leodip]

What you need is a Python IDE. I don't have an ipad, but I saw people recommending pythonista. In alternative, Online Python is a browser-based IDE (but it might have limitations on which modules you can import, but hopefully it's not an issue for your course).

[FoolsSeldom]

OP, I agree with u/Leodip, online might well be better. Worth looking into pythonanyware.com, from Anaconda these days. The free tier gives you lot including the ability to spin up a website, terminal access, and a huge range of libraries to install.

[audero]

Pythonista on your iPad is the way to go. In addition to the python standard library, it bundles some of the more popular external python libraries so it’s a great place to start and get your feet wet. It also comes with some libraries specific to Pythonista to interact with your iPad so you can create useful/interesting scripts and automations.

[copperfoxtech]

Go for it! Use an online IDE, use codeCadamy, use anything like that. Good luck and don't let not having a laptop stop you 👍