this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
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Anybody recommend any WYSIWYG builders that don't restrict you? (self.webdev)
submitted 1 month ago by finitebanjo to c/webdev
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My requirements are thus:

  1. Works offline

  2. Code is not obfuscated, does not have tons of added dependencies and libraries. I'm trying to speed up codewriting, not replace it completely.

  3. Is not a virus

  4. Generates files which can be hosted anywhere.

Unfortunately that seems to disqualify pretty much everything I've been able to find with a regular search engine. It would be nice, wouldn't it? To just have a photo-editor like program to throw a layout together, a list of divs and content, and another panel showing all the properties where you can set pixels or percentages, lock it in for non-flexible or leave it auto adjusting. Have them inherit properties from like a custom composition.

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[–] ArbiterXero 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It doesn’t exist, people have been trying since the beginning of UNIX time

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thats so weird. Its like programmers built GUIs and automation tools for stuff like OBS and GIMP but nobody every made one for WebDev. Man thats kind of a wild concept, the equivalent would be if a forestry service saved a desert ecosystem while the trees were being logged.

[–] ArbiterXero 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Any type of dev.

GUI development just doesn’t work. It’s not precise nor explicit enough.

And the code that’s generated by these routines is always shit.

The code needs to comprehend what you want to do with it, and until now the auto generation routines couldn’t do that even remotely.

…. With LLM’s that’s changing, so maybe some day?

[–] finitebanjo 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Visual Basic and Windows Forms literally do have GUI development options. It's been around for decades.

And LLMs shit out way worse code than old automation tools.

[–] ArbiterXero 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah Visual Basic has been dead for a decade.

It sucked then too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Jekyll? https://jekyllrb.com/

It's most of the way there, I'm sure someone could develop a GUI for it.

[–] Tehdastehdas 1 points 1 month ago

You may be interested in Bret Victor's work: https://vimeo.com/66085662