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Google Web Designer

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Re: Google Web Designer

#171

Post by polskibus »

niveshr wrote: post #144
BigChiefSmokem wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite part is the WebKit specific code... Don't be Evil and something about standards right? This is like IE4/Netscape Communicator days all over again, except now with more than two dominant browsers... "I was a web dev in the 90s and all I got was this lousy XMLHttpRequest object"

Hi, While editing a file, Google Web Designer uses -webkit prefixes. However, when you publish your content, the publish dialog allows you to specify additional vendor prefixes (or no prefixes) in the output so the content works in different browsers. I hope this helps. Thanks, Nivesh (Google Web Developer)

Can you explain the reasons behind this behavior?

Re: Google Web Designer

#172

Post by abalone »

lukeschlather wrote: post #155
abalone wrote: post #118

Ok, the war is on. Does anyone know of a good HTML5 ad blocker? Flash was awesome . It made it really easy to block animated ads. My browsing experience had been wonderful ever since I installed a Flash blocker a few years ago. Also did wonders for my battery life. Please, please help my browsing experience remain wonderful. Thanks.

Firefox+NoScript does a pretty good job. Typically, the domains that host the JavaScript to run the ads have no JavaScript I actually want executed. If there's an exceptional case I open it in a Chromium private browsing window.

NoScript blocks all javascript except for a whitelist you have to construct. That's way too disruptive as a general solution. We need something easy and automatic.

Re: Google Web Designer

#173

Post by JacksonGariety »

gwdengineer wrote: post #151
JacksonGariety wrote: post #43

Downloaded. Opened. Drew a rectangle. Filled with #FF0000. It spit this out: https://gist.github.com/JacksonGariety/6766626 (after struggling and realizing CMD+S wasn't saving my file) I feel sorry for whoever was tasked with making this application.

Hi, We are glad you are trying out GWD. You are correct that it seems like a bit of overhead just to render a simple rectangle. However, as alphakappa astutely observed, there is some overhead to parse the JSON data which describes the various shapes and to render those shapes in canvas(es). What you see is the entire canvas rendering library used by GWD. That code will be reused for additional shapes you create, inc…

I'm curious, why not...

#rectangle { width: 200px; height: 150px; background #FF0000; }

...by default?

Re: Google Web Designer

#174

Post by dombili »

teleclimber wrote: post #137
dombili wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's trying to get into web development (not professionally), apps like Macaw makes me want to buy a Mac. Windows is so limited compare to Mac in this regard.

It sounds like Macaw will (eventually) come to Windows: https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896

That's great to hear!

However my point still stands. Windows is really behind Mac in regards to development software (or any type of software in general). Maybe I'm underestimating the Windows ecosystem, but that's been my observation over the years. I'd like to be proven wrong.

Re: Google Web Designer

#175

Post by clebio »

mattdennewitz wrote: post #165
abalone wrote: post #118

Ok, the war is on. Does anyone know of a good HTML5 ad blocker? Flash was awesome . It made it really easy to block animated ads. My browsing experience had been wonderful ever since I installed a Flash blocker a few years ago. Also did wonders for my battery life. Please, please help my browsing experience remain wonderful. Thanks.

such entitlement! do you have any idea how publishers make money on the web?

By providing valuable, interesting content, maybe? http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_likes

Re: Google Web Designer

#176

Post by Shamanmuni »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #134
Shamanmuni wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's called "Google Web Designer", so many of us web developers probably thought we were the target audience. I first thought it was a Dreamweaver competitor with better support for JS libraries and HTML5, which would be great. Instead we have "Google Ad Designer" targeted at designers and marketers. OK, I was still interested at least to play with it for a while and see if I could recommend it to my designer fri…

> see if I could recommend it to my designer friends, but no Linux support You know professional designers who only work with Linux? I don’t.

It depends on the kind of designer we are talking about, it's not all about graphics design. Web designers (you know, the ones probably targeted by this software) don't need to depend heavily on Adobe applications and can comfortably use Aptana Studio for web design on Linux.

However, I was referring to myself. I was interested but couldn't use it, so I won't recommend it, as simple as that. I think software relies heavily on network effects, and many possible early adopters probably are running Linux too.

In my experience designers tend to be quite conservative in their choice of tools and probably won't ditch Flash just because this application appeared today. Developers are usually much more keen on trying out the latest tool, it's part of the trade.

In my opinion, it's a mistake to imply "Get the hell out of here, you're not the target audience" when you probably depend in these people to recommend the software to your target audience.

Re: Google Web Designer

#177

Post by noamhello »

krapp wrote: post #95
mason55 wrote: post #82

I tried to open an existing html file and got: "Unable to open file due to the following error: The file was not created in Google Web Designer." So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a ba…

>So, basically, Google is just creating their own proprietary format that's built on HTML. Even if you are just using it to construct ads you'll be somewhat locked-in to this toolchain. Since HTML is inherently open people will be able to build converters but it's still a bad precedent. Adobe's Muse does a similar thing - if you publish to Business Catalyst using it it locks you into a proprietary "format" that force…

Not sure where you got that info. Muse generates standards based HTML and CSS, you can take the HTML and CSS files and do what ever you want with them. Note, at that point your editing code, not visually designing. Even if you've published to Business Catalyst, you can just take your file and export to HTML and CSS later on.

Re: Google Web Designer

#178

Post by ChikkaChiChi »

sequoia wrote: post #162
ChikkaChiChi wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...which they have gotten overly aggressive on; creating a myriad of issues with normal website functionality.

Can you give an example? The only issue I've ever had with ABP et al. is when I'm working on a site and forget to turn it off & I think my site is broken (because ad doesn't load). :p

One of our webdevs complained about some issue that was causing issues with our site in particular (regarding generic id names being blocked) and since then I've had several anecdotal instances where disabling adblock on sites seems to clear up nagging issues.

I should have been more clear. My apologies.

Re: Google Web Designer

#179

Post by abalone »

andybak wrote: post #121
abalone wrote: post #118

Ok, the war is on. Does anyone know of a good HTML5 ad blocker? Flash was awesome . It made it really easy to block animated ads. My browsing experience had been wonderful ever since I installed a Flash blocker a few years ago. Also did wonders for my battery life. Please, please help my browsing experience remain wonderful. Thanks.

It's going to be trickier as just blocking a single plugin is no longer viable. I think an domain blacklist a la Adblock is probably the best idea but that won't help you with ads that are already present in the DOM on pageload.

Doesn't Adblock Plus alter the structure of the page, which can mess up layout?

Also believe it or not I don't want to block all ads, just animated ones. I want a general solution for All People, not just us nerds, and erasing advertising from the web would destroy a lot of businesses.

I want something browser makers can build in and turn on by default, which is what Safari has essentially done now with Mavericks (Flash and Java are blocked by default.. Flash under the rubric of power conservation).

Re: Google Web Designer

#180

Post by anarchy8 »

tumultco wrote: post #131
cbhl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that makes sense -- a lot of Google's (paying) clients have been using Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash to make ads for years; if Google wants them to adopt HTML5 technology they need to make tools that are as easy to use as Flash was.

That's the purpose of my startup :); we've been making an HTML5 animation tool for OS X for the last two years: http://tumult.com/hype/

How do you feel about having Google as a direct competitor?
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