Charlie Stross on iPad Writing (opens in new tab)

I wonder what the experience is on tablets where non-swype entry becomes easier as the keyboard size increases (unlike, in my experience, what happens with swype).

I still always opt for a phone with a physical keyboard, one of the reasons I can't imagine I'll ever own an iPhone. My wife recently got an iPad, it makes a great device for watching Netflix or playing Angry Birds from what I can tell. Everything else...not so sure. We bought an ipad case with a bluetooth keyboard, but it feels smaller than the keyboard on my netbook. Sure, you can get the full-size keyboard, but then you have 2 pieces.

Yes, you can do input and other things on the ipad, and some people are quite happy doing things the 'Apple' way. However, I note that once upon a time I was very happy editing code with the 'ex' mode of vim, because I had learned on a version of good ole 'ed'. I was perfectly happy using it for a good long time before learning more about vi, I'd say I'm a lot more productive and would never choose to go back.

But the difference between banging out text messages to friends and a full fledged serious writing environment are huge.

Text navigation (say you notice a mistyped or mis guessed word ) is terrible. My droid bionic does not have a physical optical joystick. Compared to my Droid Incredible, its a very painful process to fix up text.

Now imagine trying to write production code/copy on such a device.