Not that long ago Apple introduced trackpad and mouse support in iPadOS 13.4, so I decided to connect my Magic Mouse to my iPad Pro 11" (2018) and even though some apps didn't include real trackpad support yet, it worked like a charm! Even the hover and drag events worked in Safari!.
I decided to try running VS Code on the iPad, and with a mouse it worked almost flawlessly!
George B.@gbougakov
After Apple introduced mouse/trackpad support on the iPad, I decided to try out Visual Studio Code on it and it works flawlessly (debugger too)!
cc @viticci @stroughtonsmith15:31 PM - 20 Mar 2020
Quite a few people asked me how I did that and the answer is code-server.
coder
/
code-server
VS Code in the browser
code-server
Run VS Code on any machine anywhere and access it in the browser.
Highlights
- Code on any device with a consistent development environment
- Use cloud servers to speed up tests, compilations, downloads, and more
- Preserve battery life when you're on the go; all intensive tasks run on your server
Requirements
See requirements for minimum specs, as well as instructions on how to set up a Google VM on which you can install code-server.
TL;DR: Linux machine with WebSockets enabled, 1 GB RAM, and 2 vCPUs
Getting started
There are four ways to get started:
- Using the install script, which automates most of the process. The script uses the system package manager if possible.
- Manually installing code-server
- Deploy code-server to your team with coder/coder
- Using our one-click buttons and guides to deploy code-server to a cloud
provider
β‘
If you use the install script, you can preview what occursβ¦
It works by running the language server (debugger and IntelliSense), extensions and the file system part in the cloud on a VPS, and rendering the UI in your browser. It is able to do that because VS Code is actually written using web technologies and packaged with Electron.
Let's set it up
Step one. Get a server
It can be a Mac Mini in your attic, a rented server from AWS or anything that runs Linux or macOS, some people have even tried using a Raspberry Pi with an iPad and it works like a charm.
Step two. Install code-server
Download the latest prebuilt binary from the GitHub Releases to your server. Untar/unzip it somewhere.
Step three. Run code-server
cd into the code-server directory. There will be an executable file called code-server
Variant A. If you don't want to set up SSH forwarding (faster, more convenient, requires a registered domain, less secure)
First of all, get an SSL certificate
You can get one for free from Let's Encrypt using acme.sh. Their README is pretty easy to follow, so I won't get into much detail.
acmesh-official
/
acme.sh
A pure Unix shell script implementing ACME client protocol
Then, you can run code-server with
PASSWORD="correct-horse-battery-staple" ./code-server
--host 0.0.0.0 --port [PORT]
--cert ~/.acme.sh/[DOMAIN]/[DOMAIN].cer
--cert-key ~/.acme.sh/[DOMAIN]/[DOMAIN].key
Et voila! You can now open your browser, enter the password you set in the environment variable and code
Variant B. Set up SSH forwarding (requires an SSH client, but is easier and more secure)
In your SSH client, run
ssh -L [PORT]:localhost:[PORT] root@[YOUR SERVER]
An SSH session will open, where you can start code-server with
./code-server
--host 127.0.0.1 --port [PORT]
--auth none
Now, open http://localhost:[PORT] in your browser and code!
But how well does it work on the iPad?
If you have a keyboard and a mouse, the experience is flawless... almost. Here are a few quirks:
- Custom fonts installed via iFont donβt work in Safari (fixed by loading them via CSS)
- Scrolling wheel doesnβt work in editor (arrow keys and scrollbar to the rescue)
- Lack of escape key (ctrl+[ works, or you can remap ESC and Caps Lock in iPadOS Settings)
Do you actually use it?
Yeah! I am a backend developer by day, and it's great coding on an iPad. Frontenders will disagree because iPad Safari lacks devtools, but let's hope that will change in iPadOS 14 :)
This is my first article on dev.to and I'd love it if you share your feedback in the comments! Also, feel free to ask any questions :)
Top comments (4)
Great post. Thank you for posting it.
Another backend developer on an iPad here π !
Since I am very comfortable in the terminal, I remotely connect to my development environments over SSH and I am good to go.
I have been a user of Blink.sh app (~$20 USD) and it has been an indispensable tool for me. It's one of the best SSH clients on iPhone and iPad that I have used. They also recently
introducedannounced Blink Build, customizable & ephemeral cloud-based development environments (like GitHub Codespaces).Blink Build + this code-server setup = your own personal Codespaces π€© π
This is awesome, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to try this out :)
That's great π I guess things like codesandbox should work this way as well
While not free Inspect is a solid app to get dev-tools on iOS: apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1...
Feels like this brings it one step closer to make iOS only environment viable ...