[Info-vax] somewhat off-topic: command line on iOS

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

Having sadly noted the fact that my VMS web browsers are increasingly
not good enough (or that web pages are increasingly overcomplicated with
bells and whistles), and that VSI probably won't offer a modern broswer
on VMS until I get around to convincing Elon Musk to fund it (how cool
would it be to have VMS the first proper OS on Mars?), for some things I
am forced to using a non-VMS system and then need to get downloaded
files to and from VMS. 

Sure, for watching YouTube or whatever I can do it on a standalone 
device.  But much of what I do via a webbrowser involved uploading or 
downloading files or other information, most of the time involving 
information I have on VMS (and want to keep there).

About 5 years ago, I bought an iPad pro, mainly for two reasons: for 
mobile internet access (I don't have a smartphone and even if I did I 
would like a larger screen)---my first app was a VT220 emulator for 
logging in to my cluster remotely---and for reading PDF files formatted 
for A4.  I still use it mostly for those things, though occasionally as 
an internet radio or "standalone" browsing (news, weather, public 
transportation etc.), usually while travelling.

Since I have the iPad anyway, it seems that I should use that as my VMS 
broswer extension.  (No, I don't own a PC and have no plans to.)  While 
it is possible to download something and save it on the iPad, I find 
things a bit confusing, and getting it off the iPad somehow simpler than 
mailing it is an attachment from some web-based mail program would be 
desirable.

It seems what I need is some sort of terminal application.  Something 
like that exists for MacOS.  One can then use unix(-like) commands such 
as cp, rm, mkdir and so on to move files around, ls to see what's there, 
and so on.  Throw in (s)ftp and I have what I need, though it might be a 
race to keep SSH stuff on VMS current enough.  Since I would use it only 
within the internal network anyway, FTP (at least in the internal 
network) would actually be preferable.

Does something like that exists for the iPad?  (I'm not interested in 
jailbreaking it.)

I spent some time trying to find something, but to no avail.  There are 
tools designed for accessing other systems, but what I want is a prompt 
on the iPad.  (I don't have to access all the directories, just stuff 
where I save files and/or it would be nice to be able to specify a 
location I can access.)  There are various command-line interfaces, but 
they execute more or less standalone commands, rather than interacting 
with files on the system.