At long last a Terminal application is available on the iPhone, and pTerm is its name! Based on the desktop client PuTTY, you can SSH, Telnet, and raw TCP from your iPhone/iPod Touch!
Its features are:
- xterm terminal emulation
- Standard 80×24 screen
- SSH, Telnet, or “raw” TCP connections
- Ctrl key support
- Landscape and Portrait modes
- Works over Edge, 3G, or WiFi
- Stores your list of host/port/protocol for convenient access
- Terminal supports pinch and zoom
- Based on PuTTY, a stable and feature-rich code base
All in all, the app seems pretty solid. My only gripe is the lack of a tab key for tab completion. Now I’ll be able to debug stuff remotely WITHOUT using VNCLite for the iPhone. Check pTerm out, it is well worth the $4.99.
Update:
There are some more things that I find annoying:
- No tab key – no tab completion…
- No arrow keys – this makes navigating around a line a little bit of a pain.
- You can’t hide the keyboard. It’d be nice to see a full screen of top.
- No color customization
Despite the annoyances, the app is still pretty solid. Lets just hope new versions come out sooner than later with some of my hopes and dreams attached.
Comments
3 responses to “iPhone App: pTerm”
I downloaded/installed it and it won’t launch. Very disappointing.
Hi, I’m the author of pTerm – I was just Googling around to see what people have had to say about it and found your blog.
I just wanted to let you know that the keys, they are coming! It’ll probably be about another week and a half before they’re all there, though (due to Apple’s release cycle). That release will also include a ton more options (most of the options available in putty, such as custom colors, terminal sizes, storage of the username, etc).
There is a release coming soon (in the next day or two) that will fix some crashes and add a full screen mode, however.
In the meantime Ctrl-i works for tab, but I know that sucks and I’m fixing it.
Cheers!
Eric
@Eric
That is great news! With those features, the app will be a force to be reckoned with! :D
@Ted
That is odd, it loaded for me right off!