[HN Gopher] Using a graphics tablet as a programming tool (2018)
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Using a graphics tablet as a programming tool (2018)
Author : akkartik
Score : 71 points
Date : 2025-03-15 02:20 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (jeandavidmoisan.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jeandavidmoisan.com)
| hmottestad wrote:
| Anyone know any good infinite canvas app for the iPad?
|
| I've used Goodnotes for years, but it doesn't have an infinite
| canvas unfortunately. Otherwise it's an amazing app and nothing
| really comes close. I've been trying Apple Freeform as an
| alternative, but it's truly terrible in comparison.
| mattegan wrote:
| Concepts is nice. Subscription model IIRC but I've been happy
| with it. Nice options for different papers, can cut and
| paste/transform objects. Has multiple layers.
| bryanhogan wrote:
| Have also been using Concepts since I found it to be the best
| whiteboard app for me on Android. But last time I checked
| they had a one-time puchase option available? Did they change
| that?
| mschnell wrote:
| Miro works great, I really like the UI
| bipson wrote:
| Unfortunately Miro really is not too great with a Wacom on
| Desktop:(
| pizza wrote:
| Just found out today that you can edit the page template in
| GoodNotes so that it's 5000pt x 5000pt, which is much, much
| larger than the default - at least for me that's close enough
| to having an infinite canvas
| wodenokoto wrote:
| How well does excalidraw work on an iPad? It's my go to for
| whiteboarding anything
| hasperdi wrote:
| Try Nebo.
|
| I've tried them all, including Concepts. Concepts was great but
| it requires subscription and it gets slower when you have a
| very large drawing. I tried large Goodnotes paper too, but it
| was a bit clunky.Nebo was good, but then I kind of stopped
| doing large notes.
| bipson wrote:
| I can totally relate to the premise of the blog post. Thinking
| (for most people) benefits from some sort of free form scribbling
| and drawing to make sense of it, and realize what you're missing.
| At least for me it makes a huge difference.
|
| I remember reading a tip more than a decade ago from a senior
| developer, that you should _always_ have pen and paper next to
| your keyboard, to take notes, visualize problems, keep notes of
| where you are. Most of the thinking happens there.
|
| When I'm working on bigger things alone, it helps me keep track
| or the bigger picture, how to keep separation of concern und
| understand where my abstractions started leaking.
|
| Moving that pen and paper to digital unfortunately was never low-
| barrier for me. I thought about acquiring a reMarkable for that
| purpose, but it isn't perfect either.
|
| I used excalidraw in the past, but it also does not integrate too
| well with my environment.
|
| Now, with everyone being remote I would really love to have
| something that not only replaces my own scribbling and
| conceptualizing, but also serves as "whiteboard" for
| collaboration. I clearly clearly miss the whiteboard when
| discussing abstract things/ideas/problems with peers.
|
| The app mentioned in the post seems a little abandoned
| unfortunately. Does someone out there use something similar?
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I've used OmniGraffle for years on Mac. Notes Plus is good on
| an iPad.
|
| Recently, Apple has made playgrounds more useful on iPads, so I
| can now save something that I'm working on, and play with it on
| the road.
|
| My default issue tracking system is a sticky note pad on the
| desk. I write a brief description of the problem/feature, and
| stick it on the desk, to the left of the keyboard. When I am
| working on it, I move it above the keyboard. When I
| fix/implement it, I move it to the right. When I'm done
| testing, it goes in the trash. I use code and checkin comments
| for posterity. I'll also use GitHub Issues. They allow me to
| enter bug reports from my phone or pad, and associate checkins
| with issues.
| sinfulprogeny wrote:
| I have an ipad pro from 2015, an apple pencil 1, and a screen
| protector that gives it a bit more friction. It's pretty good
| for the most part, but since it's my only apple product, it
| doesn't integrate well with anything else I use. OneNote seems
| to work on multiple platforms but I never got into it. I mostly
| use goodnotes, and they seem to have released apps for web and
| non-apple stuff (finally). When I used it the most, the only
| export I had was as PDFs to Dropbox, which was fine enough but
| removed any possibility of editing outside of the ipad.
| psd1 wrote:
| OneNote is great when you use Windows in 2010.
| jackstraw14 wrote:
| I've just started using a legal pad and erasable pen (frixion
| pens are amazing) to help get my life processes better
| organized, and it's a great place to start and figure out what
| you want from these kinds of tools. For me this was better than
| trying the tools to see what works, I even tried Excalidraw but
| it's still in that category of "go back and learn how to use if
| I have time".
|
| I'm still heavily leaning on the legal pad, but I've got a
| project in Claude to streamline this whole thing over time.
| It's recommended Microsoft OneNote which I completely wrote off
| because it seems like there must be a price for such a robust
| tool being free, but it is really amazing these days. Seems
| very smooth for mixing digital media with handwritten notes and
| diagrams, I'm really impressed with it. It's probably going to
| be where I move to from my legal pad system, since it's so
| similar but offers features that will help organize the notes
| and make them searchable, etc.
|
| I always look at the new tools and services for these kind of
| things when they pop up so please share other personal systems
| as well!
|
| (I'm still not sure what the price is for OneNote, but if
| anyone knows and it's bad, please say something)
| snozolli wrote:
| _frixion pens are amazing_
|
| Be careful what you do with your notes, if you care about
| longevity. Leave a notebook in the sun and you may find it
| blank. Throwing it in the freezer may bring back some text,
| but it will bring back stuff you erased, too.
|
| It doesn't matter for throwaway stuff, but I've lost notes on
| older projects due to this.
| leephillips wrote:
| Anything similar for Linux? The Milton github page says that the
| source might possibly compile on Linux but is pessimistic.
| dcminter wrote:
| Are you sure? It seemed to say that it _would_ manually
| compile, but that the author hadn 't automated it because they
| didn't know CMake well enough.
|
| (I have time to kill at an airport later so I might try it)
| dcminter wrote:
| Ok, can confirm that on Ubuntu 24.04.2 it builds (with a
| handful of deprecation warnings) and runs ok. I didn't do
| more than a smoke-test on running it though.
|
| The README says: On 2021-02-27 a successful
| build for Linux can be done with these steps: [...
| (omitted the actual steps) ...] And if successful,
| you should have an executable called "Milton" that runs.
| I did not make this work automatically with CMake, because I
| don't know CMake.
|
| That doesn't look to have changed since 2022.
| abetusk wrote:
| I just compiled it (Ubuntu 22.04.5) and have it working.
|
| There's an updated section in the README that gives steps for
| compilation under Linux.
| leephillips wrote:
| Sounds great and thank you, but I don't see anything new in
| the README for Milton on github.
| abetusk wrote:
| It's not new, it just says "On 2021-02-27 a successful
| build for Linux can be done with these steps" [0].
|
| I followed the steps and had a compiled and working version
| within a couple minutes (after a compile error and fixing
| by installing libgtk2.0-dev).
|
| [0] https://github.com/serge-rgb/milton?tab=readme-ov-
| file#linux...
| WillAdams wrote:
| A nascent tool which looks to further explore this space is being
| developed by the guy who made Nodezator
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42274399 Kennedy Richard:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=KennedyRichard
|
| https://github.com/IndieSmiths/myappmaker-sdd
|
| The current version just allows drawing to make labels and
| checkboxes --- nothing more (but if one wanted to mock up a
| design which just needed those elements, it's a start)
| oofoe wrote:
| I've been doing this for a long time, ever since I was able to
| score a used Wacom Cintiq. I would recommend anything with a
| screen (Cintiq, Huion, iPad, etc.) over a plain graphics tablet
| if you can -- it makes things more tactile and immediate.
|
| I've (mis)used a number of drawing apps for programming design,
| including Milton (as in the article), Foundry Mischief, AutoDesk
| Sketchbook Pro, WonderUnit Storyboarder, Blender, Leonardo, Krita
| and Xournal++.
|
| Mischief, Sketchbook and Storyboarder are either discontinued or
| no longer under active development. Mischief had a really nice
| infinite canvas and some nice features for doing presentations
| across it. You can still get an old Windows version if you look
| in the... right places. But it's a dead end. Sketchbook has a lot
| of nice features, but seems like it's all but abandoned. It /is/
| available on mobile. They used to have a nice blog where they
| featured a lot of great artists. Storyboarder is cross-platform
| and source is available, but packages can't seem to be downloaded
| any more.
|
| The Blender grease pencil tool just gets better and better and
| works well with tablets. I've used it to do rough sketches and
| user-interface mockups. Colour selection was a bit clumsy last
| time I tried, but I think it's been improved since. I think you
| could say it has an "effectively infinite" canvas. Scriptable, 3D
| objects are first class.
|
| Leonardo is Windows-only, but has pretty nice raster-based
| infinite canvas. Very responsive and quick. Very easy to do
| constrained lines and shapes, which can be useful for programming
| ideation. It's my current go-to, I'm not sure what I'm going to
| do when I switch to Linux once Win10 is unsupported. Maybe it
| will run on Wine...
|
| Krita is really more of a traditional paint program, but I've
| still used it for notes and designs even though no infinite
| canvas. It has a "Comics Manager" bolt on that can be used as a
| sort of notebook. Scriptable.
|
| Xournal++ is a bit of a strange beast. It's intended to be more
| of a "notebook" application. No infinite canvas, but as many
| "pages" as you like. It deals with LaTeX, PDF and also pressure-
| sensitive tablet sketching. It has voice recording and markup
| features. It's also cross-platform -- I've used on Windows and
| Linux, and if I can't take Leonardo with me it's probably going
| to be my new main app. Also -- nice to use when you want to sign
| a PDF with a "real" signature.
|
| Not including things like GraphViz, PlantUML, etc. -- all the
| apps above are very responsive and support pressure-sensitive
| sketching, which I think is vital for ideation and exploration.
| tcrenshaw wrote:
| Check out rnote. It's similar to xournal++ but has an infinite
| canvas and a slightly nicer UI, assuming you're into gtk style
| apps. I don't know how responsive it is comparatively, I've
| just been doing research ahead of getting a tablet.
|
| https://github.com/flxzt/rnote
| sporkl wrote:
| I'm personally a fan of Stylus Labs Write:
| https://www.styluslabs.com/
|
| Not exactly infinite canvas, but pages can grow outward. Cross-
| platform and open source! And has some cool features which make
| working with handwritten text nice.
| pjmlp wrote:
| What I am missing, and would buy as an app, is the ability to
| code on an Android tablet with pen.
|
| Regardless of the programming language, writing code as I do on
| paper, with the difference it is straight into the editor window.
|
| No side panel, where I have to write one word after the other
| with pauses and correction, or that some apps (looking at you
| Pydroid) for whatever reason disable.
|
| Straight like Apple's math demo, to make it more precise.
|
| This is the kind of stuff I would like AI algorithms to improve,
| instead of taking people's work away.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| This article is basically "I write notes with my tablet instead
| of using paper".
| Swenrekcah wrote:
| Well, they're also using software that makes the tablet capable
| of useful things that paper isn't.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| So what, it doesn't have any real connection to programming.
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