Day 7 – Useful Android terminal environment, with github

Recovering from the flu… what fun!???

Terminal IDE

Anyways, spent some time configuring TerminalIDE for Android by installing python3 etc.After battling with getting git to work on a non-rooted os, I discovered that the “~” path name does not resolve correclty in TerminalIDE. Further investigation also showed the version of ssh used has no verbose flag to help identify why git was not working.

Ref [Issue 44: ~ not resolving]: https://code.google.com/p/terminal-ide/issues/detail?id=44

Other notable irritants for this implementation:

1. Domain names don’t resolve, so connecting to github has to be performed using the actual ip.  Therefore you need to ping a url location to get its ip.  However, you need to use the rather more obtuse command “jping” to do that.
2. sshd doesnt exist in this version.  So we have to write a .sh scripted equivalent.  That said, even if you do manage to get a separate machine to connect you still have to init the shell manually.  Lots of hoops to jump through.
3. Telnet: on an up note, there was a telnetd bin available which was easy to run and even easier to connect to via PuTTY on Win8.

 Terminal IDE features:

• Shell: Bash
• Languages included: javac, Java. Can install gcc.
• Noteable apps: git, midnight commander, vim, nano.

ZSHaolin GNU Terminal

After all the headaches, I abandoned the free TerminalIDE and took a chance on a paid app called ZSHaolin.  This app has superior versions of ssh and git.  It also includes sshd and telnetd.  However, I was not able to get them to work on an initial run with Win8.1 PuTTY.

Advise you follow the following link; how to specify the ssh key in the git argument.  Method 2 actually worked for me, after using ~/tmp/git-ssh.??? instead of the /tmp it actually uses.

Combining an ssh key with git for use in zsh.

ZSH Features

• Shell: Bourne
• Languages included: lua, perl.
• Noteable apps: git, mc, vim (ssh with verbose!)

Conclusion

Moral to the story is you get what you pay for.  Though TerminalIDE is an outstanding piece of work, it still needs more refinement.  If you have the time to fine tune that version, I’m sure it can become an exceptional tool.

TODO

Copy python3 over to ZSH… and then expand that library with various python libraries.  eg numpy, sympy etc.