Blink 19 (or any) Roadmap?

[HealsCodes]

With recent discussions like this one I would feel a lot more reassured in my Blink (and Build) subscription if I knew there’s any stress-able Roadmap for future versions.

While I do agree on some of the mentioned points in the linked discussion (I’ve been using Blink since the start and initially got grandfathered into the subscription version so I know how much of a pure-bred utility focussed terminal it originated from), I still don’t think the new features diluted the app in any way.

To the contrary, being able to start a full fledged VSCode on my iPad from a terminal and being able to easily connect that to an on-demand Build instance or an always running tunnel has made Blink my tool of choice for my travel and on-the-go developer needs.

Soo… reading “we should have made Blink Code / Build separate Apps […] and are looking into that” arguably makes me worry for more fragmentation, less integration and likely additional subscriptions for those apps on top.

[carloscabanero]

Thanks for the message and of course, feel free to ask about anything you want to know!

The idea with separating on other Apps is not about breaking the integrations, but about letting them grow on more use cases and becoming more useful. Here is where I think the situation can improve:

• Blink Code is limited by the shell UI. There are a lot of problems with "how do I close the window", "how do I connect to x environment", etc... Switching between tabs when it is Code and the Shell is a pain. On Blink Shell configuration we have "Hosts", but there is no hook for VSCode environments, the entry point is always the shell, etc... A separate application wouldn't lose the integration with Blink or with SSH connections, but it would allow us to:

  1. Have a full-screen Code window all the time like Blink Shell, but we can handle tabs at a different level as we don't need to deal with the Shell and the totally different input methods.
  2. Better keyboard customizations, even for Software keyboard. Right now the keyboard code is very tied into the shell, we can do a lot better.
  3. Better access to your environments. We can remember your previous started environments, we can connect to GitPod, or Codespaces or to your environments.
  4. Better guidance inside the app. You don't need all the artifacts from the shell, we can have better documentation and functionality within Blink Code.

• Blink Build will still have the same integration as now. With a separate application I don't mean on iOS, but a separate CLI application that you can run anywhere could give you access to your build machine from anywhere, and not just your mobile devices.

Hope that makes sense and brings some clarity. But please, ask more questions and give your feedback at anytime as a hardcore user!