3 Tools to Start Programming on a Tablet or Mobile Phone

On Twitter, I’m hanging around with people who are just getting started with web development. Sometimes they say that they need an (expensive) laptop to get started with programming. But you don’t need an expensive laptop or computer.

It’s better to get started with what you have than waiting until you have that great expensive computer. I know for some of you, that doesn’t sound ideal, and maybe it isn’t, but if you want to get started, it’s good enough.

In this article, I want to share with you some tools you can use on a mobile phone or cheap tablet so that you can get started with web development.

I was inspired to write this article by this tweet by Danny Thompson:

It’s better to get started with what you have than waiting until you have that great expensive computer.

CodePen

This was my first platform, where I did a lot of prototyping with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

It is super easy to create an account with your Github account. You can get started in a few seconds.

CodePen works great on mobile and tablet, so if you’re working with HTML and CSS, this is a great fit.

CodePen can be used for free.

CodeSandbox

Lately, I’ve started using CodeSandbox because it works just like Visual Studio Code but works in the browser.

The editor works great on mobile and tablet. I’m building a lot of the prototypes used in my content on a tablet using CodeSandbox.

The great thing about CodeSandbox is that they have a lot of starter projects. Want to work with Vanilla JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular, React, VueJS or anything else? They’ve got you covered.

They support all frameworks and libraries that are based on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

You can also connect your CodeSandbox project with GitHub so that your code is backed up there.

CodeSandbox can be used for free.

CodeAnyWhere

This editor is the only editor in my list that supports a lot of back-end programming languages, like Python, PHP, Java, Ruby, C++ or Node.js (72 in total). You find good uses for CodeAnyWhere.

This editor is great on mobile and tablets, which is awesome. They offer a terminal to run your application and even deploy it on a remote server.

Just like the other editors, you can customize this editor to your needs. They even have customizable color schemes.

If you want to share your project to collaborate with someone else, they offer that on a project, file, and folder level.

You can start using CodeAnyWhere for free for seven days. After that, you can start at $2.50 per month, which is super cheap.

Conclusion

If you want to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript or any other language, you can get started with one of the platforms above on your tablet or mobile phone.

When you’re learning some back-end programming languages, it can cost you a bit with CodeAnyWhere. In that case, I highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and a cheap monitor. This will get you a great start.

But remember, if you want to get started with programming, never let money be an issue; get creative with your solution.

If you need some help or advice to get started, let me know in the comments so I can help you out.