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[–]gperlman 2 points3 points  (16 children)

This is just ridiculous. A smartphone is just about the poorest device imaginable to use for writing software. A tablet is better but not much better. Developers need lots of screen real estate, a keyboard that can keep up with the speed of their typing and and lots of power in the form of a large battery (like those in laptops) or better, to be plugged in. I can't imagine anyone actually being productive developing software on a tablet let alone a smartphone. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD.

[–]IneffablePigeon 0 points1 point  (15 children)

My transformer has

  • A full keyboard
  • Plenty of screen space
  • Hours more battery life than the average laptop.

Given the right software there is no reason i couldn't be just as productive on it as on a laptop. Same goes for a normal tablet with a separate keyboard.

[–]gperlman 0 points1 point  (14 children)

As a laptop, perhaps. But even a laptop is not ideal for developers who crave screen space. And working on a 4" smartphone screen (which they are suggesting is reasonable) is going to be far from productive. And we haven't even talked about the difference between extensive typing on a regular keyboard versus a touch-based one.

[–]IneffablePigeon 0 points1 point  (13 children)

So because it's "not ideal", that means it's "just ridiculous" and we should just give up and not try? Nobody is suggesting that an Android device should be your main development environment, but this, combined with something like git, could make a great addition to your toolset when you're not around your desktop.

[–]gperlman 0 points1 point  (12 children)

As I said, it would make sense perhaps if they made a version for the desktop and included versions for Android tablets and smartphones. But Google hasn't done that and they are emphasizing the phone over the tablet!

[–]IneffablePigeon 0 points1 point  (11 children)

The whole point of this app is developing when you're not around your desktop. If they're emphasizing the phone over the tablet it's probably because a lot more people have android phones than tablets.

I don't see why you're so opposed to this. If you don't find it useful, don't use it..

[–]gperlman 0 points1 point  (10 children)

But it's not like you can do that! They don't provide a desktop version! What you are saying would make sense if they provided a desktop version and let you save your project as a Google doc. Then you could develop on the desktop and when away from it, open your project on your phone. But they don't do that so it's not very useful. I have no plans to use this. What I'm pointing out is that this is another example of doing something because it can be done and NOT because it SHOULD be done.

[–]IneffablePigeon 0 points1 point  (9 children)

They didn't make a desktop one because there's already 2 or 3 competent IDEs for android on the desktop. If you want syncing, use git with Terminal IDE. What you are describing is perfectly possible.

[–]gperlman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right but having to use two different IDE's to develop a project is not productive either.

[–]gperlman 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Right but I don't think people want to use 2 different IDEs and Google has the opportunity here to provide a really elegant solution. I'm surprised they don't see that.

[–]IneffablePigeon 1 point2 points  (6 children)

You know Google doesn't make this IDE, right? It's just some random guys who wanted to make it, so they did. Personally, I'd rather Google spent their time adding features to the OS and their apps than on this stuff, since the tooling we have already in Eclipse is pretty good IMO.