Prompt 2 4+

I am still getting used to the amazing concept of ssh-ing into a server on an iPad. The terminal emulation has so far proven to be faultless, and the interface works well. With a Bluetooth keyboard, it's as functional as a laptop. I was demonstrating how data were being written to a MySQL database by a balance, and being read and updated from a FileMaker database, all on my iPad. Amazing. You can even store a public key in a saved server, which in my case skips me around the two-factor authentication hassle.

Being bugged to switch back to Prompt to keep it connected is making me crazy. I have had to do that a number of times while writing this review, and the App Store app stops taking keyboard input when I switch out. Sigh. It's an unavoidable restriction imposed by Apple.

If the programmers at Panic are ever sitting around trying to think of a bone to throw us users, the ability to change screen colors (background, type, etc.) would be cool, or the ability to create themes (or even a few more themes) would be nice.

Perhaps the most crucial app on my iPad Mini. Deals with the space- and UI constraints in a sensible way. I actually love the way that I need to re-authN to the app each time I switch to it (and that biometric is an option for authN), and the fact that the devs took pains to prevent data leakage via app-switcher thumbnails. Just enough assignable keys to drag heavily-used symbols (pipe, underscore) up and out of where Apple buried them on the default keyboards. Finally, very pleased with Prompt 2’s (so far, fully-transparent) IPv6 support. I’d recommend it to anyone who needs SSH on the go. Kudos!

I’ve been using this a great deal recently to work on remote servers, and it’s excellent, but it does have a few flaws.

1. Even when using monospaced fonts, it loses track of exactly where the cursor should be, and the cursor can end up offset anything from half a character to several characters from where it should be.
2. It can become confused as to just how large the terminal window is, resulting in having to blind-type because the cursor is *under* the on-screen keyboard.

In both cases, tricks that’d fix a real terminal (typing ‘clear’ or ‘stty sane’) don’t fix the problem. Closing the session usually fixes the first problem, but trying to fix the second can result in the server menu locking up and the program crashing.

Finally, not a problem, but I would *love* to be able to have some form of ‘scp’ built-in to transfer files from Files or Photos - maybe sandboxing prevents it, but even having an option to send a file to Prompt, then select within Prompt from files that had been sent to scp to the current host would be great.