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+# Writeas/WriteFreely iOS Publishing Workflow
+
+[[Notes: Writeas/WriteFreely iOS Publishing Workflow]]
+
+When _Extratone_ was running on WordPress, I found myself writing about it all the time, partially because I was learning how broken the web had become (largely thanks to WordPress,) but mostly because of all the drama surrounding the endeavor. There’s a lot to say about bad software, so writing about it is _easy_ - I understand this truth, intimately - but _The Psalms_’ number one mandate is to celebrate uniquely clever, undercovered solutions, and by golly, one has been staring both you and I in the face for years, now, without mention on this blog. This year’s dive into iOS has inadvertently lead to many unexpected avenues of exploration, but the one that has underpinned them all has been using my iPhone 12 Pro Max as (essentially) my _primary machine_ for all of it: research, notes, (astonishingly) working in public via Git, composition, publishing, and spreading it all around. Write.as - the SaaS implementation of WriteFreely - is not only _capable_ of supporting this workflow - in my extensive use, I have discovered a path for which it is _particularly optimized_, I think. As I have committed to stop taking the Write.as suite for granted and become a more actively productive member of its community, I’d say it is the perfect time (for once) to let loose and zoom _all the way in_. 
+
+## Apps
+* [**WriteFreely**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/writefreely/id1531530896) - the official, [open source](https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely-swiftui-multiplatform) app is more than worth its one-time $9.99 price if you’ve committed to Write.as to any degree.
+* [**Anybuffer**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/anybuffer/id1330815414) or another clipboard manager of your choice. I actually use (and adore) Copied, but it has been removed from the App Store due to a “[patent infringement claim](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1386154771850043392).” 
+* A **Markdown-based text editor** of your choice - [Bear](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bear/id1016366447), [Taio](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/taio-markdown-text-actions/id1527036273) and [Drafts](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drafts/id1236254471) are the “premium” options I’d start anyone with. Since it’s arguably the most powerful of these and my personal choice at the moment, I will be using Drafts in this post. For those with ultra-specific taste like me, Brett Terpstra maintains the most [obsessively-comprehensive database of iOS-based text editors](https://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/) ever to exist.
+* [**Telegram**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807) - for those who don’t have a MacOS-running desktop, Telegram’s private “saved messages” feature is still _the_ most handy method of exchanging links and files between an iPhone and desktop with its insane 2GB cap _per file_ and [extraordinary adaptability to inconsistent network connectivity](https://bilge.world/bad-connection-insights).
+* A **second/alternative web browser** - It might sound silly to set aside a whole web browser on your phone just for interacting with Write.as and Snap.as, but I’ve found it invaluable and there are _literally_ one billion browsers to choose from on the App Store, but I’m going to use [Google Chrome](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-chrome/id535886823) ([Chrome Beta](https://testflight.apple.com/join/LPQmtkUs), technically,) mostly because it is the (very distantly) second-most consistently supportive of hardware keyboard shortcuts behind Safari.
+
+### Excess mode
+The above apps are all that’s needed if your end goal is just publishing and editing to Write.as or your own WriteFreely server, but if you want to go as _all in_ as I have - or, notably, if an iPhone/iPad is the only computer you have access to, for whatever reason - you’ll probably be astonished (as I was) at how well you can accomplish just about _everything_ involved in **development** on your goddamned cellular phone, these days: editing CSS themes, configuring Javascript additions, parsing JSON analytics data exports, extensive performance testing, _scraping_/archiving, fileserver management, and on and on…
+
+There is a limit, but it feels completely absurd to define: you can’t actually _host_ a WriteFreely installation on your phone. That is to say - you can’t really use your cell phone as a fucking server… At the moment, anyway. Considering you _can_ run the Write.as command line client in a Linux shell and interact with the service via the Write.as API… on your phone… Who is to say, really, if running a persistent Linux server in the background will be possible on iPhone in the near future?[^1]
+
+All that said, here are some apps enabling _mobile web development_:
+* [**Working Copy**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/working-copy-git-client/id896694807) is the Git client of choice on iOS. It is alarmingly capable and thoughtfully designed to wholly integrate Git into the OS so that it is not only _usable_ but (incredibly) _natural_ to use it. Pushing and committing a file with full annotation can be accomplished _from the share sheet_. 
+* [**Kodex**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kodex/id1038574481) is my favorite code editor/IDE for directly editing files. It’s beautiful, free, and designed to make the best of the ridiculous undertaking that is code editing on iPhone.
+* [**iSH Shell**](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243) is a **full Linux shell on your fucking iPhone** with an incredibly helpful community. Realistically, it’s best for running little Command Line utilities like Pandoc, but it is also disturbingly capable of crazy scraping shit with wget and youtube-dl. Theoretically, old school Gitists who prefer to use it in the Command Line could do so in iSH, but [a-Shell](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-shell/id1473805438) (the popular alternative) might be more optimized for that, considering it functions as an actual Terminal within Files. (Sorry, I’m not quite crazy enough to try it.)
+* For CSS color alterations, I’m concluding my recommendations with two Hex-based utilities: [Color Pro](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/color-pro-p3-picker/id1207928528) for precision color _picking_, and Pastel
+
+[^1]: I decided _not_ to explore whether or not the jailbreak community has addressed this.