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Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

dev.aspect.app

21–30 of 148 posts

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#21
These visual tools never clicked with me. There is always a point that you need to code something "manually" and then switching back and forth is just tedious (and if you are lucky that your code doesn't break the tool) to the point it makes no sense to use such a visual tool. Maybe this is different though. I wish it was possible to try without having to set up an account.

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#22
post #20

I'm a bit fed up with those "IDE" for web attempts. Every 9 Month or so , we get a new attempt at fixing Web Dev lack of Visual Feedback and productivity issues. The typical coder behind this type of project get "Mental Fatigue/ Coder Exhaust" after 6 Months as they generally ignore the complexity behind building such product and end up abandoning the project.... There is a google graveyard , but we should also build…

Where exactly is now your problem with IDE's for webs?

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#24
post #20

I'm a bit fed up with those "IDE" for web attempts. Every 9 Month or so , we get a new attempt at fixing Web Dev lack of Visual Feedback and productivity issues. The typical coder behind this type of project get "Mental Fatigue/ Coder Exhaust" after 6 Months as they generally ignore the complexity behind building such product and end up abandoning the project.... There is a google graveyard , but we should also build…

Do you also have concrete criticism of this project or just generic general complaints about the topic?

Yes, there are many attempts trying to fix the problem, that designing requires coding and yes, that is a very, very hard problem to do right.

But just shitting on something because you feel bitter about the topic (or whatever your motivation is) probably won't lead to anything interesting.

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#25

Is it really that tough to Cmd+Tab then Cmd+R? All jokes aside, good job. Creating tools to solve problems is always fun.

I even have the browser and code on the monitor at the same time. And with pretty much all modern web frameworks you have a dev server that automatically does hot module replacement, so you instantly see your changes without reloading anything yourself.

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#26
Hey, well done for getting something functional working and in the public eye.

> I made this because building UIs in a lexical medium like code is super annoying. I have to pre-render what I’m making in my head

I'd call the pre-rendering in your head a benefit, tbh. Also.. watching your vid, the property editor being "far away" from the selected item renders this tool much less useful to me than writing code. My eyesight's bad, so I can't keep the editor and the selected object in focus at the same time. The head & eye switching is probably more annoying to someone in my position than switching apps because at least I know I'm changing context when I switch apps (although I admit, I've put up with that for 20 years so perhaps I just don't notice).

> I was inspired by the developer console in chrome and safari since I end up editing css there because it’s ironically more convenient.

Conversely, I agree with this entirely. I don't like having to bob my head around the screen when I edit CSS in the browser, but it's still MUCH faster and intuitive than doing it in a separate code editor. I strongly dislike Tailwind and similar tools because they prevent this kind of coding/debugging. A similar tool got shown here on HN recently, and the conversation circled the idea that a visual tool to edit CSS is a) so handy but b) really hard to build because it's not programmatically obvious which file to make updates too... it's still easier to keep the file hierarchy in your head (even though that's quite hard). I guess focusing on React components lets you assume the CSS is "beside" the given component.

Re: Show HN: A Visual IDE for React

#27

Great idea. I think UI/UX designers would love a tool like this. Especially if they could import React components made by the development department.

If the components are headless. Otherwise it makes more sense to do it the other way around. Designers write components that just render stuff, which then gets wired up by devs to be state/effectful.
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