1. Programming apps for your iPad: Dash API Docs
Dash is an API documentation browser that enables users to instantly search through countless APIs with an offline function available too.
Dash provides programmers with access to iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Swift, .NET Framework, ActionScript, Akka, AngularJS, Angular.dart, Ansible, Apache, Appcelerator Titanium, AppleScript, Arduino, Backbone, Bash, Boost, Bootstrap, Bourbon, Bourbon Neat, C, C++, CakePHP, Cappuccino, Chai, Chef, Clojure, CMake, Cocos2D, Cocos2D-X, CodeIgniter, CoffeeScript, ColdFusion, Common Lisp, Compass, Cordova, Corona, Craft, CouchDB, CSS, D3.js, Dart, Django, Docker, Doctrine ORM, Dojo Toolkit and many, many more.
2. Programming apps for your iPad: Buffer Editor
Buffer is a powerful code editor that can connect with numerous remote services such as Dropbox, SSH, SFTP and FTP servers. What’s more Buffer offers unicode support, an extended keyboard and Vim coding support.
Buffer also offers syntax highlighting and code auto-complete for a variety of programming languages including ASP, AWK, ActionScript, Ada, Arduino, C, C++, C#, CSS, HTML, INI, Java, Javascript, Perl, PHP, Progress, Puppet, Python, R, Ruby, SQL, and many more.
3. Programming apps for your iPad: AppGyver
AppGyver is a mobile development app that houses numerous useful programming tools. Firstly, with the Prototyper users can glue pages together to create excellent prototypes for testing. The test can be accessed though the AppGyver website or via a QR code.
All backend development can be done for free but testing and launch is $9 (£5.90).
4. Programming apps for your iPad: CodeToGo
CodeToGo allows you to create and run code in 50 different programming languages, including Ruby, Python, Java and Perl, with syntax highlighting for most of them. It’s not the best looking app, but it’s relatively intuitive and easy to use. As well as communicating with Dropbox, you can also transfer files to and from your computer using iTunes File Sharing. Once you’re done, you can test your code and see the results, using the ideone.com API. The downside is that you need an internet connection to execute your code. However, you could always save and load your code when you do have a connection.
5. Programming apps for your iPad: JavaScript Anywhere
JavaScript Anywhere lets you edit JavaScript, HTML and CSS code from your iOS device and preview in them in the internal browser. When you’re happy with what you’ve created, just import it to your Dropbox!
6. Programming apps for your iPad: Kodiak JavaScript
Kodiak JavaScript is an offline HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript IDE for the iPad with a WebKit-based internal browser. It includes syntax highlighting and an enhanced keyboard in its code editor, as well as the jQuery library and 50 other JavaScript libraries and frameworks. Where Kodiak JavaScript really shines is its ability to run your Web code on your iPad without needing to upload files to a server: Just press the Play icon at the top right of the screen to make the code page slide to the left and the browser appear. This vastly accelerates your development cycle, and it’s exactly what you need when you have to code a client-side Web UI on an airplane without Wi-Fi.
7. Programming apps for your iPad: Kodiak PHP
Kodiak PHP is an offline PHP IDE for the iPad with an internal PHP interpreter built with the most common extensions. It includes syntax highlighting and an enhanced keyboard in its code editor. Like Kodiak JavaScript, Kodiak PHP lets you code and run Web applications right on your iPad without needing to upload to a server; however, PHP code generates the HTML for the browser, so the Kodiak PHP interpreter essentially is a local server, sending its output to a local WebKit browser. Note that if you want to use a database (typically MySQL), it will be on an external server, not your iPad; you will need connectivity. The same caveat applies to using the PHP curl feature.
8. Programming apps for your iPad: Textastic Code Editor for iPad
Textastic is a Textmate-compatible text, code, and markup language editor for the iPad with syntax highlighting for more than 80 programming and markup languages. Textastic has its own WebDAV server and can communicate with FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV servers, as well as Dropbox. It can do local and remote Web preview for HTML and Markdown files, but it can’t run any other kind of code internally. It does code completion only for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP functions when editing. The odd-looking compass just above the keyboard in the screenshot is Textastic’s cursor navigation wheel, which enables easy text selection. Not visible in this screenshot are the file properties, file and symbol browsers, and file transfer module.
9. Programming apps for your iPad: Codea
Codea is a Lua IDE for the iPad that is especially useful for creating games and simulators. It includes syntax-highlighting and visual editing for Lua, a graphics renderer, reference documentation, shader support, a Physics engine, and support for touch, accelerometer, and camera. Finished Codea apps can be exported to Xcode and built as App Store apps. Bear in mind that Codea only supports Lua, not any other languages, and it’s not a substitute for Xcode. If you have a “see what works” attitude and a willingness to read the Codea forums, you may pick up Codea and Lua quickly; if you expect extensive tutorials, you won’t find them here.
10. Programming apps for your iPad: Diet Coda
Diet Coda is a stripped-down iPad version of the Mac editor Coda, designed strictly for live editing of sites, which is fine if you have a staging site, not so great if you only have a production site, and useless if you don’t have a site with FTP or SFTP access. It supports syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. It briefly supported Ruby on Rails, but that feature has been pulled; it does not do syntax highlighting for Python or Perl. While Diet Coda had its share of five-star reviews, it also had a significant group of unhappy customers. Remember that Diet Coda edits files live on your website, not files on your iPad.
11. Programming apps for your iPad: iOctocat
iOctocat is a GitHub client for the iPhone and (in compatibility mode) iPad. The basic version is free but won’t open private or GitHub Enterprise repositories; upgrading to Pro is an in-app purchase of $9.99. The developer is reported to be responsive and active, but so far there is no sign of full iPad support. I tend to avoid running iPhone apps on the iPad — they never really feel right to me. An alternative that does have iPad support is the $4.99 Git Mobile for GitHub, but it has very few ratings. I’d try the free version of iOctocat and test it out on public repos to decide whether it’s worth buying.
12. Programming apps for your iPad: OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle is a diagramming package for the iPad that’s useful for site planning. Redesigned earlier this year, the user interface is easier to work with that previous versions. Priced at £39.99, it’s the most expensive one on our list, and OmniGraffle has received mixed reviews over the years, criticized mainly for its high price and limited sharing capabilities- you can only share native documents via email or as a PDF. It’s too bad that ratings in the App Store don’t tell you anything about the hardware reviewers use. It’s also too bad that there isn’t an easy way to return iPad apps that don’t work for you.. Caveat emptor.
13. Programming apps for iPad: AppCooker
AppCooker allows you to mock up iPhone, iPad, and iWatch apps, then preview them on devices with a free companion app. AppCooker requires iOS 8 and iPad; AppCooker’s designer doesn’t work on iPhones, though you can design iPhone apps with it on iPads. Are you confused yet? Because AppCooker uses native iOS 8 controls for its mockups, it requires iOS 8 to run. It doesn’t require any coding, which makes it handy for beginners.
14. Programming apps for your iPad: Codosaurus
Codosaurus has one huge plus: it allows you to edit your code directly on the server, either through Wi-Fi, 4G or 3G. However, those connection is restricted to standard FTP, which for some, may be an issue. It supports an array of files, including HTML, CSS, PHP, Python, Ruby and SQL. It’s not the most comprehensive of apps, but if you’re doing a quick code edit, it does the trick. The app’s latest update was in 2014, hence it’s optimised for iPhone 5, but compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
15. Programming apps for iPad: Pythonista
Pythonista is a Python IDE for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It offers syntax highlighting, code completion, and an internal Python 2.7.5 interpreter. You can export scripts as Xcode projects that build stand-alone iOS apps. Pythonista requires iOS 7. Pythonista is the most expensive Python IDE in the App Store, but it has a nicer UI than the others. It has scene, sound, and other modules for accessing iOS functionality in order to develop interpreted iPad and iPhone apps. Its greatest omissions are the NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib modules; these are, of course, popular requests from the scientific computing crowd. The free Python Math app includes NumPy as an in-app purchase, so adding NumPy to Pythonista may be feasible.