So I've been thinking of replacing my old Eee PC netbook, because I'm tried of always having to take it back from a family member. I kind of like the idea of a tablet for some things, and but also want to be able to write and do light programming on it, so currently the only one that really appeals to me has been the Eee Pad Transformer with Keyboard/battery Dock.

However, the one thing I haven't been able to find much of any details on is things like being able to install tools, use a command line terminal, and in general have access to syntax highlighting and compilers?

So far, most of my searching has turned up people asking questions like this, but without answers, so hopefully this shot in the dark will come up with some answers to help me decide if I ditch the idea and go with a traditional laptop/netbook instead. (But I would really like to have an 'alternative' system platform to play with and learn something besides PC/Linux dev work.)

I do most of my work in Python, C, and Java, in that order.


Thanks for any help.

Get a server machine. Install dev tools and whatever else you need there.

Use your tabled to ssh/VNC into that server.

I had a Transformer for a few months. It was very painful to use due to the poor keyboard. It would regularly miss key presses, and the trackpad support was garbage as well.

If you program games in html5/js all you need is a text editor (I assume most products have one of those)
I program html5/js stuff in windows with a plain text editor, its a bit of a PITA but Im yet to find a good js editor.
thus if you have a texteditor thats all you need, edit text, save and then press f5 in the browser to see the changes! cant be simpler

Hosting it all on a sever is kind of useless in my case, as a big part of taking my netbook with me is going to areas where I won't have access to a connection anyway. Out of normal cell networks, and I have no way to justify the expense of satellite.

And Tstrimple, was it a general issue with all text input, or was it only for some applications? I'm kind of surprised something like that wouldn't have gotten pointed out in more reviews.

The transformer 2 is coming out in a few months, I would recommend waiting for that one rather than grabbing the transformer 1. Last I checked there is an issue with the tablet stealing power from the keyboard (although that might be a defect only in some keyboards).

@zedz: Give Komodo edit 6 a go, it doesn't have complete autocomplete but it does have a useful feature that lets you open a browser in a split screen so you can test changes really quickly.

@zedz: Give Komodo edit 6 a go, it doesn't have complete autocomplete but it does have a useful feature that lets you open a browser in a split screen so you can test changes really quickly.

That is not the problem. One can use edlin to write source.

The problems come when trying to build anything non-trivial. If working solely in js, then writing in browser is easy. But C and Java? Enter gcc, dev libraries, gigabytes of cruft just to compile something. Plus the JVM itself. And all of such development makes heavy use of disk, making lower end hard drives quite a pain to use, let alone something flimsy as a tablet or netbook. Not even mentioning that virtualization is likely a no-go.

It can be done. But it's similar to trying to build a ship in a bottle, when all you want to do is some boat fishing in the lake.

There are currently no development tools on the Transformer itself. I own and love my Transformer, and recent firmware have fixed the keyboard issues for the most part ( still annoying lag at times ).

I basically do exactly what was described earlier. I use the tablet to connect to my Mac ( using SplashTop ) or my PC using Remote Desktop. Then again, I am always connected anyways, either through Wifi ( I live in Downtown Toronto so it's everywhere ) or 3g, via wireless tethering my cell. The one nice thing with the Trasnformer is I can use the USB ports in the keyboard to keep my phone charged while connection sharing. The Transformers 1280x800 resolution actually makes remoting another computer feasible, as does the ability to plug in a mouse, as the built in trackpad is........ flawed.

I have seen some talk about porting Eclipse to Honeycomb, but I doubt it will ever happen. The Android JVM isn't actually Java, and those small differences are going to make porting something like Android virtually impossible.

@GMuser cheers though I dont mind having a seperate browser (I just have editor one window & broswer in the other) what I would like to have is to right click on a function and being able to jump to that function (like MS visualC) but since js is not strong typed lots of stuff will be harder to implement.

@Anthues u can do complicated stuff in js, most of my projects are >10k LOC

My suggestion is to the OP perhaps change their approach eg use a different language like js. Hell I reckon with todays smartphone you could ever code on those with javascript/html5.
ok typing is a PITA & also such a small screen but it would be doable I assume. For me thats one of the beauties of it (even though as a language its a turd) the ability to run anywhere, within reason
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The transformer... Last I checked there is an issue with the tablet stealing power from the keyboard (although that might be a defect only in some keyboards).

I've never heard of that issue. And I'm very experienced with the device. In fact, I'm using it right this moment to compose the post. :-) The device pulls energy first from the keyboard and then from the tablet itself. If the tablet has less charge than the keyboard it will charge itself up. I don't think of that as "stealing power", more as "keeping the real device useful as long as possible". Even when the keyboard portion is completely drained the keyboard portion still functions just fine.

Near as I can tell, the theory is that the tablet portion should be kept charged as much as possible for as long as possible, since the keyboard is removable and can be undocked at any time. I think of the keyboard as a large secondary battery that also has convenient slightly smaller than average keyboard.

I haven't had a difficult time with the touchpad on the keyboard, but my wife tries to rest her thumb on it so she hits the 'trackpad off' button. I also agree that the keys are not as sensitive as I like, it is certainly not a replacement for a full size keyboard. There is one USB slot on the tablet and another on the keyboard so I guess you could try a keyboard and trust your luck.

The devices are generally good for read-only viewing. They are less good for data entry. Even writing my daily gamedev posts gets painful after a half hour or so. I cannot imagine doing any significant programming on the tablet.