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Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

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Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#21

Post by shantnutiwari »

mattront wrote: post #18

Take a look at Pinegrow [0] (I'm the author). It is a desktop app that lets you visually work with standard HTML & CSS files and supports frameworks such as Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS or just plain old CSS. There are also more advanced features, for example live SASS compilation, components, interactions and even exporting WordPress themes and blocks. [0] https://pinegrow.com

Tried Pinegrow(and similar UI tools), didnt like it. They expect you to still know all the low level details, at which point you might as well write straigth css

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#22

Post by vonadz »

dusted wrote: post #4

I just read that you didn't want to troubleshoot html, css and js, so my goto toolkit for simple UIs might not fit your bill, but hear me out :) At work, when I do internal tools, they are usually well received. They also pass just below the threshold of having their looks be judged. They're not ugly, because they're almost not there. Very plain HTML: HEAD+TITLE, H1, H2, UL, OL, A, IMG, INPUT, BR, TABLE, P Javascript…

I recently took a similar approach for a couple of simple websites (https://abyteofcoding.com/survey/ and https://crosspromote.io), and found that surprisingly people don't really care that much. It's still very annoying to deal with responsive stuff (changing design based on screen size) though.

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#23

Post by shantnutiwari »

n3t wrote: post #17

I often use plain HTML and a classless CSS (e.g. Water.css[0]) for personal projects. This way it's easy to write and maintain. Looks okay. Fast feedback cycle during development. No need for build steps. Works in browsers without JavaScript. Works well on desktop and mobile devices. Highly recommended if suits your needs. [0]: https://watercss.kognise.dev/

This should be the top answer. Simple Css libraries (I use MVP.css) that just work with no hassle is the way to go

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#24

Post by shantnutiwari »

davidkuennen wrote: post #5

Honestly? React [0], Tailwind [1] and Vite [2]. Using Vite so setup the environment and tailwind components for css I have never been able to create front end faster than now. It feels like a super power. [0] https://reactjs.org/ [1] https://tailwindcss.com/ [2] https://vitejs.dev/

OP mentioned they are backend developers-- and you are asking them to do a whole frontend setup? Your answer is a bit like "Oh just recompile the Linux kernel if you want feature X, its so easy LOL"

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#25

Post by _ZeD_ »

dusted wrote: post #4

I just read that you didn't want to troubleshoot html, css and js, so my goto toolkit for simple UIs might not fit your bill, but hear me out :) At work, when I do internal tools, they are usually well received. They also pass just below the threshold of having their looks be judged. They're not ugly, because they're almost not there. Very plain HTML: HEAD+TITLE, H1, H2, UL, OL, A, IMG, INPUT, BR, TABLE, P Javascript…

this

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#26

Post by gherkinnn »

dusted wrote: post #4

I just read that you didn't want to troubleshoot html, css and js, so my goto toolkit for simple UIs might not fit your bill, but hear me out :) At work, when I do internal tools, they are usually well received. They also pass just below the threshold of having their looks be judged. They're not ugly, because they're almost not there. Very plain HTML: HEAD+TITLE, H1, H2, UL, OL, A, IMG, INPUT, BR, TABLE, P Javascript…

It would only take a tiny amount CSS to make it usable.

The examples by vonadz are minimal to the point of being a chore to use.

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#27

Post by domlebo70 »

davidkuennen wrote: post #5

Honestly? React [0], Tailwind [1] and Vite [2]. Using Vite so setup the environment and tailwind components for css I have never been able to create front end faster than now. It feels like a super power. [0] https://reactjs.org/ [1] https://tailwindcss.com/ [2] https://vitejs.dev/

I totally agree. This is a super stack. The productivity it enables is insane. I like to use Chakra instead of Tailwind, but same principle.

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#29

Post by 55555 »

mattront wrote: post #18

Take a look at Pinegrow [0] (I'm the author). It is a desktop app that lets you visually work with standard HTML & CSS files and supports frameworks such as Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS or just plain old CSS. There are also more advanced features, for example live SASS compilation, components, interactions and even exporting WordPress themes and blocks. [0] https://pinegrow.com

Any plan to compile this to webassembly and make it run in the browser? Webflow is killing it. I had no idea there were other options.

To be clear, I... don't even know why I want that? Desktop software runs faster than webapps do. But for some reason I feel like people these days simply prefer to not download stuff. Weird.

Re: Ask HN: What's is your go to toolset for simple front end development?

#30

Post by jonnycat »

If you need any kind of interactivity on the frontend, but are more comfortable with the backend, I would suggest looking at Phoenix LiveView [0] or a similar server-rendered HTML technology for your language of your choice [1].

In short, these solutions take JavaScript out of the mix entirely and basically let you deal with a single logical "app", rather than a separate frontend & backend.

[0] https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix_live_view [1] https://github.com/dbohdan/liveviews

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