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Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

alpha.easel.io

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Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#61

Post by mrbogle »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #59
mrbogle wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard part about using the browser's layout engine is that it is limiting to the designer. We'd have to snap things into say, floating position, etc. And we'd have to know exactly what the designer was thinking when they're dragging some element around. Or they would have to know about floats, and how to use them. We think (right now) that the best way around this is some kind of constraint system, like CAD apps h…

> The hard part about using the browser's layout engine is that it is limiting to the designer. True, and the even harder part is building a system that treats that as a feature rather than a bug.

Right. That's a human problem, though. Many designers have told us they feel very restricted in wysiwyg tools, so refuse to use them.

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#62

Post by pirer »

mrbogle wrote: post #57
pygorex wrote: post #48

Very cool interface. Any a very nice usage of keyboard shortcuts. Can Easel output an entire web page? - meaning can I layout an entire page then get a zipped download of the page plus any CSS and JavaScript resources?

It can. But things will all be absolutely positioned. The intent is to generate pieces of html and css that fit into your dev environment. The code generation is still very much in-flux, but from what we're seeing, programmers dont want the entire thing generated.

>programmers dont want the entire thing generated.

Those who don't program would love it.

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#63

Post by mrbogle »

hexvector wrote: post #50
fredsters_s wrote: post #6

There's no way this won't kill Photoshop for web design

Maybe for you, not for people who create real designs that aren't just css buttons, gradients and rounded borders.

Many designers definitely need more than the tool currently provides. I'm curious, what would it need for you to use easel?

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#64

Post by JoshTriplett »

mrbogle wrote: post #61
JoshTriplett wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The hard part about using the browser's layout engine is that it is limiting to the designer. True, and the even harder part is building a system that treats that as a feature rather than a bug.

Right. That's a human problem, though. Many designers have told us they feel very restricted in wysiwyg tools, so refuse to use them.

That makes a lot of sense: most WYSIWYG tools end up presenting a UI that cares more about appearance than semantics, so if you actually care about building good semantic HTML and complementary presentational CSS, most WYSIWYG tools utterly fail. So if a designer cares about building fluid layouts and semantic content rather than pixel-accurate recreations of Photoshop images, it makes sense that they'd feel very restricted in a WYSIWYG tool.

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#65

Post by mrbogle »

DigitalSea wrote: post #56

I'm a web application nerd and I really think you're onto something here. As an initial offering this app has a lot of promise and I can't wait to see what else you guys do with it in the future. Everyone will be designing (pretty shortly) in their browsers it's only a matter of time with the advent of cloud computing.

Thanks. We agree with you. It will be so much easier when the tools understand the process.

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#66

Post by mrbogle »

aik wrote: post #29
fredsters_s wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use Photoshop? It's analogous to the hotkeys there.

Yes but Photoshop has the tools and buttons to accomplish the same thing. Generally you learn those first, and the hotkeys second. Jumping directly to the hotkeys, especially without any sort of hotkey chart, I find off-putting.

Noted. We'll work on making this more clear and maybe direct people to click rather than use the hotkeys.

Re: Show HN: Easel, web design in the browser

#69

Post by mrbogle »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #46
mrbogle wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard part about using the browser's layout engine is that it is limiting to the designer. We'd have to snap things into say, floating position, etc. And we'd have to know exactly what the designer was thinking when they're dragging some element around. Or they would have to know about floats, and how to use them. We think (right now) that the best way around this is some kind of constraint system, like CAD apps h…

I think what you have is great and I think you should run with what people are seeing this as "awesome" for, design prototyping. I think making this into anything that generates layout or uses the browser engine is going to be either: much harder than you think, or: will lose much of the functionality that you can allow for now via "do whatever, drag/drop, absolute positioning".

Thanks. That is the intent. Design prototyping, but with tools that allow the dev to build it more quickly.
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