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With the imminent announcement of the iPad 3, there’s little doubt

that we’ve entered the Post-PC age. These devices are often touted as

being more about the consumption of media than its creation, but as

they become more and more powerful, even this line is becoming

blurred. Let’s review the viability of coding for WordPress on an

iPad.

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Some Backstory

Since purchasing my iPad, one of the things I’ve enjoyed has been

that I couldn’t really use it for work. It was a kind of enforced

relaxation, but while still feeling connected. As time has gone on

though, I’ve begun to use it more and more for work, and recently

decided to try and develop a WordPress plugin using only my iPad. I’m

still developing the plugin, but here’s what I’ve found so far.
Is the Hardware Ready?

The iPad is plenty powerful enough for running development apps.

Development apps are generally not especially demanding on a

machine’s hardware, and let’s face it, the iPad is more powerful than

computers we might have used for development 10 years ago anyway.

One thing I have found is that for development, or even just article

writing, the iPad’s on-screen keyboard is really not adequate for

regular long-term usage. I’ve bought a wireless keyboard and stand to

use (specifically, a ZaggFolio if you’re interested), and this has

really changed things. Now, writing articles and code on my iPad is

very doable.
Is the Operating System Ready?

Generally speaking, as long as you have the software you need,

operating systems really don’t get in the way of development. So

whether you’re using iOS, or Android, or anything else, it’s more

about the apps. One thing I have found about iOS that could use some

improvement when it comes to development though, is app-switching.

Why?

    App-switching is a little clunky and more time-consuming than

Alt+Tab on your desktop or laptop
    Some apps don’t support app-switching very well, and lose their

state when they are not the app in focus
    Lack of a shared file-system can sometimes be frustrating, though

hasn’t been a major blocker for my particular experiment so far

Are the Apps Ready?

This is really the most important consideration. If the apps aren’t

ready, then it will be impossible to develop on the iPad. So what

apps do we actually need when it comes to developing themes or

plugins for WordPress?
Apps for Planning Your Project

This is one particular area that’s gotten a lot of attention from app

developers, and it shows. There is an extensive collection of apps

available for planning and managing your projects. From expanding on

the kernel of an idea, to interacting with version control systems,

to collaborating on wireframes. Here are some examples of apps I’ve

decided on for these parts of my project:

    SimpleMind+ is an app I’ve found extremely useful for mapping out

the flow of a plugin and getting it straight in my head before I

start.
    iMockup is an app for wireframing your project and designing the

interface before you get underway with development.
    iHub lets you manage and keep up with activity on your GitHub

account and repositories from your iPad, including issue management.

Apps for Developing Your Project

More and more code editors are becoming available, and while they

vary in their exact approach, they all have the basic functionality

you need to get going. There are also apps for interacting with your

web server and file systems.

    Dropbox could be one of my favourite apps ever. I barely pay any

attention to it on my laptop, but it faithfully stores all my files

away so when I need them on my iPad, there they are!
    Prompt, by Panic! who also make Coda, is my app of choice for

connecting via SSH to my web server and making any command-line file

system changes I might need to make during development.
    Gusto is the app I’m currently using as my code editor. It also

includes the ability to (S)FTP files from my project to my web

server, which is extremely useful. Some other code editors I’ve tried

either lacked the simple functionality Gusto has, or were too

unintuitive to use.

More Apps for Your Project

So you’ve been able to plan your project, and develop it, here are

some apps to use once your project is up and running:

    WordPress for iOS, obviously! It’s also important to note that

this app is really for managing the content of your site, you’ll need

to use Mobile Safari and wp-admin for managing settings, plugins,

themes, etc.
    PSExpress will allow you to tweak your photos and images before

uploading them to your website.
    Phraseology makes typing up articles really nice and easy. It’s

very minimalist, but not so minimalist that it doesn’t have the tools

you need. It also supports markdown.

Usage in Practice

Ok, so I augmented my iPad for coding with a bluetooth keyboard, and

I got all the apps I needed for planning, developing, and managing

the project. Now how did they actually work together? Here’s what

I’ve done so far:

    Configured the domain and web server on my hosting provider

through Mobile Safari
    Connected to my web server over SSH with Prompt and installed

WordPress
    Configured Gusto for SFTP access to the WordPress install on my

web server
    Planned out the flow for my plugin in SimpleMind+
    Created a number of wireframes in iMockup
    Started coding the plugin in Gusto
    Testing the plugin so far through Mobile Safari
    Wrote my readme.txt in Phraseology
    Wrote the article you’re reading now in Phraseology!

Conclusion

While I’m still fairly close to the beginning of my plugin

development project, I think things are looking extremely promising

for development on the iPad. I haven’t been forced to abandon the

iPad yet and continue developing on my main development machine, and

other than app-switching, it’s actually been quite a fun experience.

What do you think about the potential for developing your WordPress

themes and plugins while on the go with your Post-PC device?

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