With the new iPads so powerful with M2 chip, when will Scrivener on iOS be able to compile just like it does on MacBook Pro or iMacs?
That does not make much sense to me. Almost the entirety of the compiler’s design concept involves features the iOS version doesn’t even have.
Even so, the iOS platform is intentionally handicapped to a severe degree, and in such a way that would make large chunks of the compiler impossible to develop. That’s just how Apple wants it to be, evidently. If they felt the iPad should be a computer replacement (seriously, not just in a marketing sense they seem to put forth now and then) then they would have ditched the phone OS years ago and put macOS on it. It would take no less than that level of overhaul to make something like the compiler possible, even in theory.
And that’s before we get into the question of whether a chunk of code so complex that it’s probably actually larger than the entirety of Scrivener for iOS, should be bolted on, comically like a v12 on a Mini Cooper. Again, ignoring the fact that vast chunks of it don’t even make sense in the simplified environment the iOS version provides… it would be a bit absurd. 
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First of all, dial it back. I was asking a simple request. Perhaps dreaming a little.
Maybe it is Apple’s advertisements, but when they show the iPad recording and editing video and audio, why can’t Scrivener do something like let me format the Compile function on an iPad?
Maybe “the entirety of the compiler’s design concept involves features the iOS version doesn’t even have”. But I don’t want to do it on iOS, I want to do it in iPadOS. I said iOS when I should have said iPadOS. My bad. I thought that may have been understood when I posted. I’m not talking iPhone. I understand the limitations of the iPhone. It is good for getting down the text without the compile function. I don’t even know why the iPhone has a compile function. But I want to be able to edit the format for the Compile functions on the iPad the same as I do on the Mac.
Since you are talking different operating systems, yes, iPadOS is different from MacOS. iPadOS is designed around a touch screen. MacOS is not. But iPadOS is also designed to work with a touchpad or a mouse. In my mind, this makes the MacOS inferior to iPadOS.
But I don’t know how to write code, Amber. Maybe you do. All I see is a tablet that is powerful as a laptop, lighter, and somewhat cheaper. Make Scrivener for Mac run on an iPad and I’ll ditch my MacBook Pro. Scrivener is the only reason I still use my MacBook Pro.
You can change the Compile settings on an iPad, just not to the extent that you can on the Mac.
You can record and edit video on an iPad, but I’m pretty sure LumaFusion on the iPad isn’t as capable as Final Cut Pro on a Mac, either.
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Well, I did tag the post as “wishlist”. Lets leave it at that.
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If I understand your response there are two hurdles to implementing various Scrivener desktop features on iPadOS, the particular feature here being the compiler.
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First, the iPadOS app does not include much of the underlying functionality that the compiler needs. That’s because iPad Scrivener is a simplified environment.
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Second, there are iPadOS technical hurdles.
Could Scrivener evolve to a “less” simplified environment? I.e., in the era of M-Series chips, is the simplified environment still a technical necessity? Assuming the technology is advanced enough to accommodate a more robust environment on iPadOS, is taking advantage of that something L&L is considering or is the philosophy behind the iPad version that it will always be a simplified experience in comparison to the desktop?
I use both, but It would be ideal (to my way of thinking–maybe not L&L’s or other customers!) to be able to use the software (close) to the same way on both platforms.
It’s not the chip so much as the environment provided by iOS.
Scrivener aside, an M2 iPad and an M2 Mac are very different user environments.
Start with something really basic: multitasking. I currently have 4 different significant applications running on my Mac, with a half-dozen more utilities. A browser, two mail clients, the Dropbox application, a keystroke expander, and a couple more. I can switch among them at will, and the applications in the background are continuing to work on whatever task while I type this.
This kind of multitasking is fundamental to things like background Dropbox synchronization. It’s also key to usability of something like a complex Compile job: compiling a large project that fully exploits the capabilities of Mac Scrivener can take a pretty significant amount of time. Long enough that you’d like to be able to do something else.
iPad OS? Can’t do it. It’s true that the M1 and M2 chips come closer, but it’s still nowhere close to what Mac OS can do.
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