Hiptex

Downloaded this to try and work on a .java file away from my computer. In a pinch this program works great but I will take you a few minutes together used to. The interface looks pretty slick and I think this will wind up being a great purchase but it won't replace using a laptop. Would love to see some minor improvements that would make this app a lot easier to use.

This app does every it advertises. However, I'm of the same mind as the other fellow rater. Would like to see some features added. When you make any changes to a file, the screen zooms way in. After a few seconds it zooms back out again. To me this is undesired. Instead, zoom in once and have a button to zoom out again. Would like to see the ability to change the location of the cursor by just tapping a line. At the moment you have to drag the screen around the cursor. Font is cool, but not useful for actually getting down to business. We need more customization. Few misspellings, and when you create a new file, the app is in landscape and the keyboard in portrait. Can't see what you are typing. A template would be nice. Basic HTML page with header and body tags, or a php file with the tags already in place. All in all, the app is ok. Needs some changes though. Wouldn't recommend it yet, but has a lot of potential.

The developer has modified a few things. No more swipe to backspace, instead you have a copy paste gesture to replace it. The selection, which was originally a simple two finger swipe, now involves two fingers placed on the screen with the movement of each single finger controlling one of two cursors. This new gesture is a bit bizarre. There is now an iPad version, and one complaint would be the unnecessary zoom feature, which is an annoyance on a large screen. Overall it is still a functional text editor, although there is a lot of experimentation going on with the interface, for better or for worse.

I really, really like the idea behind this editor; it seems pretty unique in the App Store, as far as editors seem to go. I use it a lot if I want to write code on my phone, to be later dropboxed to my computer. However, I find it to be short on customizability. On my computer, I use gVim. I'm a little spoiled that way: Vim has been an ongoing project for decades now, and is more than any new editor can ever hope to be. However, I *rely* on some of the simpler features in it. I'd appreciate it if I had the following features added to this editor: - The ability to turn wrap text wrapping on and off. I write lots of files in LaTeX, but I have to write my paragraphs using Notes because it just trails on and on in Hiptex. - The ability to highlight trailing spaces. - The ability to set the default startup settings. - A scripting language, esp. for syntax highlighting. This one is sort of out there, but I'd greatly appreciate it; I have a couple personally created languages that I use for taking notes, and I want to be able to use that on here. Don't worry about it if it's too much trouble. - Better syntax highlighting for different languages. I can hardly see any difference between anything in LaTeX. Highlight control sequences, at the very least. Auto-indent for new environments (but not the "document" environment, because that's redundant). (Or just take cues from how Vim does it. It's great, and I prefer it.) - Allow the user to set the amount of time they may have to take typing breaks before it zooms out. The current time is much too little and makes zoom-typing a very nauseating experience, so I had to turn it off, despite how fond I am of the feature in general. Overall, *great* work; I just want more!

Many people will find the zoom feature annoying, but I like it. It adds to the unique style of the app. I've only downloaded a few apps for programming, but this is by far the best. I would give it four stars if it weren't so under appreciated, as there is room for improvement, but again, it's the best I'm aware of, so it's deserving of 5. My main gripe is that the semicolon, quote, and bracket keys aren't on the main keyboard. I don't know if there would be room to add them, but adding that would make me even happier.