With the larger pool of accessible memory and more powerful memory management on the M-series iPads are there any plans to bring more of the desktop features we love to the iPadOS version?
Here are a few of the things that I’d benefit from:
Multiple panels for: binder two edit windows and information panel.
Multiple Scrivener Instances (so we can have more than one project open at a time).
Quick Reference Panes (perhaps in conjunction with 0 or as separate floating windows if such a thing is even possible on iPadOS).
Access to the desktop-quality compile settings (c.f., discussion here: Scrivener for M2 iPads).
Desktop Outline view.
More drag and drop options throughout the UI.
Maybe some support for shortcuts.
…
∞. heck, just make it a universal app and bring it all over to the iPad.
I like (and use a lot) Scrivener on iPadOS, but like many of us who use macOS Scrivener, I’m spoiled by the desktop.
Regardless of anyone’s thoughts on my wishlist, I’m just generally curious if there are any (publicly sharable) plans for expanding Scrivener’s powers in the M-Series era of iPads.
As noted elsewhere, how fast the chip is really has very little to do with the theoretical capabilities of the platform at any level that we consider software. If Apple is telling people that they can do more because of their benchmark results, or whatever, they are not saying that in a technical capacity. I don’t really know if they are saying that—I don’t pay attention to their ads—but it seems like there is this misconception that people are bringing from somewhere, that 2.7ghz vs 1.3ghz will somehow enable whole new classes of software. That’s not how it works, it just means stuff runs faster.
To expand what software can do you need, what I’ve said elsewhere, a different operating system.
I am totally tracking with you on this, but my question is not one about chip speed (or Apple marketing, for that matter). I have developed software and very much appreciate that iPadOS is a (the?) limiting factor. My question is that with the changes that have been made to iPadOS and the platform itself — things like stage manager and a larger memory pool — do any of those affordances enable L&L to squeeze more out of Scrivener for iPadOS that would enable it to expand the feature set available to users?
I guess the main thrust of the question is, what does the future look like for Scrivener on iPadOS? If you can share it, I’d love to know.
Scrivener is a remarkable tool on both iPad and macOS—especially macOS(!). Hopefully, you don’t fault me for wanting more of its power available. But I do get that there are unfortunate limits currently in the OS. No need to repeat that refrain. I’ve got it.
For iOS in particular, Keith has said he’s looking at how changes on Apple’s side might facilitate integration with iCloud, but he’s also said that would likely require a fairly fundamental rethink of the application. So there is a future for iOS Scrivener, certainly, but we aren’t prepared to discuss exactly what it looks like at this time.
I’d like to point out here that iOS Scrivener currently includes both iPhones and non-Pro iPads. iOS Scrivener already suffers on the screen-limited iPhone; many of the features mentioned here, while delightful to contemplate, would not be available on plain iPads. Not that there is anything wrong with having more features available on beefier hardware/OS combos! But I wouldn’t like to see Scrivener become less useful on my humble iPad (no suffix) or iPhone. I trust that L&L will see that doesn’t happen.
While I have a range of Apple devices all with Scrivener on them; Mac mini (M1), MacBookPro (M1), iPad Air (4th gen), and iPhone 5S I’m with @Silverdragon that I would not be very happy if my 5S were no longer able to run Scrivener because features were added that it could not support.
Speed isn’t quite nothing though is it. Many design choices are compromises rooted in whether a process can be done fast enough to fit in a suitable window of time and not bog things down, or become laggy at scale.
