Hi! I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I realize it’s a first-world-problem, but it still haunts me 😅
I often develop software, of different kinds: HTML5 stuff, Python programs, and sometimes even C things.
My main development machine is my desktop GNU+Linux PC. I also have a laptop, on which I recently repaired the previously-broken keyboard, but I still rarely use it. I will now get to why.
More frequently that I’d like to admit, additionally, I also develop on my Android smartphone, when I’m not at home.
I don’t bring my laptop anywhere, because it’s a 2KG 15" beast. The best I can do is to use it around the house, moving it from my desk.
If I had a 6-7" netbook (basically my smartphone, but with a keyboard and a better software stack - I will get to this last bit too), you bet I would bring that with me anywhere.
Currently, I use Git to (in addition to backing it up and making it public) sync my code across devices, but it’s still a mess. Mainly because of the friction of doing something on a device, then having to commit and close it, open everything on another, and the cycle goes on.
Because yes, I need to open and close stuff.
I use my PC for stuff that’s other than just programming, and can’t just leave stuff open, I need to turn it off when not in use because it wastes a lot of energy. At the same time, turning it off means wasting time because on HDD - unless I want to reinstall Alpine Linux, where everything was blazing fast but the need of configuring every system thing by hand killed me - everything takes ages to load.
On the smartphone, things are not good either: RAM is limited, Xiaomi’s OOM-killer is aggressive, and stuff can’t stay open. Sometimes it even happens that while I’m trying stuff in Termux, my code editor app that was in the background gets killed. At least, flash memory means everything reopens quick.
Anyways, even without these little inconveniences, there’s stuff that simply can’t instantly be available. I can’t edit a text file on a machine and having the editor on another automatically have the latest version of my file, let alone stuff like the cursor position… At least with my current development tools.
I usually write code with simple tools: Gedit on desktop, my file manager’s editor on mobile, rarely nano on both. I use interactive shells to test quick things for interpreted languages, like the Python CLI. Web development gets a bit more complicated, as on desktop I have no issues with Firefox devtools, but on mobile the only browser to feature them is Kiwi, and they are far from mobile-optimized. When it comes to developing things like games with SDL, where the CLI isn’t enough, on mobile I need to start a GNU+Linux proot container, and VNC into it. Finally, I use Git CLI to push/pull code.
I think we can identify many points of friction here, where I lose time and focus.
Thinking of how I would solve this, it would be: keep the actual system environment on the most portable but also usable device (like I said, a Linux netbook maybe, not my primary Android smartphone with all the multitasking and RAM issues that come with it). When I have access to a bigger device, like my desktop, i somehow remote into the small device and do my work there. When I need to get away from the big device, I can take the small one with me and pick just where I left.
Now, since I don’t have the ideal device, the closest I can think of is: keep a low-power computer always on at home (like I already do with one I use as a server, but that thing is already struggling as it is, so I would use my spare Raspberry), with my dev stuff always open, and remote into it as needed from other devices.
But, here come another issue: how do I actually remote into it?
VNC is not really an option. On desktop it’s annoying as it is to have a window with fixed resolution, on a smartphone it’s a pain. Not to mention, the lag. I could use remote X11 on my PC, and have native windows spawn from the dev machine to my local desktop… not on Android though. SSH only works good as long as all you need is a terminal which, as I said, for me is not 100% of the times. There aren’t even terminal code editors that I really like.
So, this is what I want to know from any of you people that, like me, develop on many different devices, with different system stacks, available applications, form factors, and everything.
Is there any solution more optimal than VNC? Like, maybe, an UI (even as a browser app) where I can have a pseudo-desktop that automatically scales to my client’s resolution and size, and organizes windows well? Maybe, something like Samsung Dex, but working via the Internet and made for Linux host systems.
Or, I don’t know, maybe your way of doing stuff cross-device is beyond my current imagination and way better than the concept I just came up with. Tell me that too!
tmux is the best multiplexer, and it runs everywhere. Also I wouldn’t discard the keyboard, keyboard-based editors, keyboard-based shortcuts so easily. They’re much faster and more powerful than the mouse. I’m sure you could find a few “why I use vim” videos on youtube where people have calculated how many thousands of hours they’ve saved by never having to take their hands off the keyboard.
Update: well, I just now discovered that tmux can actually be configured to more or less be what I like. Still missing a clickable new-tab button, but being able to click to switch between open tabs and having tab ribbons with a custom color is good enough for me. I’ll try to finish setting up my config then
Old message:
Maybe, that’s true on a desktop PC… but on mobile, oh well. Even with a physical full-qwerty keypad, it’s a lot harder to use what in this situation I wouldn’t call “shortcuts”.
You already have to move fingers around, better moving it to click a single, well visible, distinctly coloured button, than to aim at a specific modifier key that has the same color and is close to others, and then click another key to do the action.
I’ve been looking for some terminal multiplexer between yesterday and today but I can’t really find something that works as I like: something like GNOME terminal or Konsole, with simple clickable tabs, but it’s a TTY app instead of a GTK/Qt app, so it can run in any other terminal emulator.
I found Zellij which, if customized to only keep the tabs bar, could be a good solution.
It works on my PC, but it’s source is too heavy to compile on my server or even my smartphone…
I also found out about the amazing vtm, basically a full window manager that works in the terminal.
At the moment, it’s too mouse-focused to be fully used in a terminal emulator with only partial mouse emulation, like Termux, but, [un]maximizing windows and opening the side taskbar to navigate between windows works, so it’s at least usable. It’s included in the Termux repos, so I hope it will be easy to compile even on my server.
It has some things I don’t like, such as the fact that it forces is own dark theme - not ideal if you find yourself working on an LCD smartphone in an higly-lit environment, where light theme is basically a requirement to see anything. I will try forking it, to make it work with the standard terminal theme if possible, or a custom light theme. I will also try making some mobile improvements, like making the windows be maximized by default and the taskbar more easily accessible.
Unless someone knows of a TTY terminal multiplexer like I said I need it… just a clickable bar with open tabs, an open button, and close buttons… like any GTK/Qt terminal app, but with TTY rendering…
They’ve calculated, but never measured. There’s a problem with that: calculations come with assumptions that don’t always bear out in the real world: whole time sinks get missed because we don’t perceive them happening.
I know of only one formal study that actually measured and the results of any gains were inconclusive. I’d like to see more, but there are none that I’ve found. I’m putting the “thousands of hours gained because no mouse” thing into the firm camp of religion.
Did they also calculate the thousands of hours they spent customising their vim config?