Show HN: Radi, my HTML5 content creation app (Mac)

Radi is a side project of mine that has kept me occupied for the better part of 2010. I'm very happy to finally have it in a half-presentable state, just in time for 2011! What's that they say about the first release -- "if you're not embarrassed, you waited too long?" Well, this is that one for me :)

It's scary to put this app out there to the whole world in its current condition, but I feel like I've reached a dead-end.

There are too many directions in which this app could be developed. I need to cut down on the abstract ambition and start focusing on some real-world use cases.

For that, I desperately need your help! What's your biggest need in the world of HTML5 content creation? Do you see a path for this app to be developed into the tool that would fit your needs?

Thanks for any input, and (slightly prematurely) a great 2011 for everyone on HN! I appreciate this community enormously.

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A few words about the technical details of this app...

Although the app targets HTML publishing, the compositing core doesn't actually use any kind of browser engine like WebKit. Instead, it's a node-based GPU-accelerated compositing system of my own devising. Layers and effects are rendered using OpenGL.

Because there's no browser engine, there's also no browser-style DOM available in Radi. I've written private implementations of the relevant JavaScript APIs, primarily Canvas. The JavaScript engine used is WebKit's JavaScriptCore, a.k.a. Nitro in its current accelerated incarnation.

The app is native Cocoa, but it's written in a way that's fairly portable. (From my other projects I already have a large part of the core ported to Windows+Direct3D.)

I guess we have here the Adobe Flash Studio for HTML5. Nice job!

Congratulations, you are about to be offered a lot of money from a big company.

Do you take it? ... Or do you create a new software empire for the creative web development world to rival Adobe but built on open standards?

Aren't the side projects the real projects in the end? :)

I remember when we had to design a service and an interface for it in Flash in college. The university did not provide an Adobe license, so the license would run out right around the examinations, assuming you hadn't installed it earlier to play around with. They basically wink-wink-nudge-nudged people into pirating the whole thing.

Had we had something like this, things would have been so much easier in every conceivable way. Working with Adobe Flash was perhaps the worst experience of my time in college.

It's funny to think about sites like newgrounds.com and kongregate.com and how HTML5 might challenge the domination of Flash.

First of all, when they come and offer you a pile of money (and they will), please insist on a clause that they release it. Someone may try to bury it.

Anyway, I had fun playing with it. The timeline gives me happy/terrifying Director/Flash flashbacks. I can't figure out how to make an animation cycle in the timeline (i.e. like a walk animation) without cheating & creating keyframes by moving stuff to a slightly different (x,y).

I also couldn't figure out how to script top-level elements (does everything need to be composited inside a cavas?). I added a number of "picture layer" objects that I wanted to move via keyboard control. I couldn't figure out how to put a script in the topmost layer to do this (nor could I see how to reference the sub-layers so that I could move them). I might have been fooling myself -- it looks so much like Flash or Director, that I expected to be able to write a top-level script that controls all of the sub-elements. If that's not possible due to the overall layer architecture, you should make that clear (by making the other scripting opportunities explicit when available).

A few quick suggestions:

- The "command line" input in the script editor is a great idea, like the "message window" of HyperCard or FaceSpan. I think you'd do well to make it its own window, and have the last result displayed underneath the input area (ala FaceSpan) so I don't have to wrap everything in sys.trace.

- Positioning elements via arrow keystrokes doesn't seem to work -- please implement bindings similar to Interface Builder (or FaceSpan) where modifier do useful things like snap to grid and stretch.

- JavaScript API reference menu item doesn't seem to work. I found it eventually (http://lacquer.fi/developer/conduit-js/#sys in case anyone else has the same problem).

Overall, it looks great. I can't wait to hard to believe you kept it quiet long enough to do all of this. Congratulations!