New Business Idea and the Technology That Makes It Unique

The other day, while I was riding on the bus to school, I came up with a new business plan. I was sitting there wanting to do some programming on my laptop, but had little arm room to do so due to a packed bus. That’s when it came to me, you should be able to program on the iPad or some other tablet. A tablet is light, small, and able to be used in confined places. So when I got home I began researching. I found out that programming cannot be done right now on the iPad. It lacks the software needed to compile code. And since the iOS doesn’t let you look into its software, there are no apps that can simulate this. The closest apps there are to a programming one are a few text editors that aim towards programming languages.

                My vision is to create an app that simplifies coding on a tablet as well as offer IDE functionality that programmers love on their desktop and laptop counterparts. My app will solve the problem of using a touch keyboard to type by having customizable hot keys that will set up templates of code segments. Making it easy for the programmer to add a for loop by only having to worry about filling in the initial values, test case, and increment. The variable gets initialized and named according to what is already being used on automatically as well as the structure of the for loop. I will also give the app real time error detection for syntax errors. Programmers often forget to add a semicolon here or enter in a different punctuation mark without realizing it.

                Currently it seems that my biggest competitor is an app called Textastic. They offer an advanced code editor for the iPad that supports more than 80 languages, speedy and responsive editing, some forms of easy code auto-filling, and the ability to connect to a DropBox account as well as your PC or Mac. It is a lot to compete against, but my app will first focus directly on one language, most likely Java, at first making it less complex then their app and simpler to use. I hope by focusing on one language and not cluttering my app will appeal to those new to programming and those that don’t want to be confused by other languages. Textastic offers many neat features but they do not offer real time error detection like my app will. I believe this will give my app an advantage as even the most well developed programmer sometimes forgets to add a semicolon or hit a wrong key.