
Macaw – Code-savvy web design tool - ApertureHour
http://macaw.co/
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selmnoo
Either that app is really good, or the demo video was really good.

I normally don't get excited over tools like these, but wow that actually
seemed very well done and very impressive.

The HTML/CSS code it produced was beautifully clean, so interestingly I'm
actually most excited about the possibility of this being used as a training
tool: the option to be able to instantaneously see the code in a side window
as you're 'drawing' it -- this kind of simultaneous feedback is always a real
boon for the beginner learner.

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nacs
Narrator on video: "We're going to move through this pretty quickly".. Video
length: 20 minutes.

The code produced by the app does look quite clean for a WYSIWYG however.

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evmar
This looks really neat. It also helps me understand why so many websites look
bad on non-Mac platforms (aka 90% of desktops): designers who do stuff like
"that looks a bit heavy, let's bump down the font weight a bit" without
realizing that these settings look unreadable on Windows or Linux.

~~~
cseelus
On Low-Res devices running Linux or Windows, that is.

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sangnoir
In other words, you're confirming the 90% figure, right?

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th0br0
I had actually expected something for "real" code. (e.g. Scala, Go, younameit)

While CSS3/HTML5 definitely made web design somewhat closer to actual coding
(esp. on the CSS end), I still find it difficult to call renderer instructions
in a markup language true "code".

However, this looks like an interesting tool! Too bad that you only seem to be
aiming for OSX. Are ports planned?

~~~
wasabian
OSX and Windows seems to be the targeted platforms according to their
Kickstarter FAQ.

> We have no plans to bring Macaw to Linux at this time. Once the Mac and
> Windows versions are released we will look into Linux.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/macaw/macaw-the-code-
sav...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/macaw/macaw-the-code-savvy-web-
design-tool#project_faq_70302)

~~~
GhotiFish
I can understand not paying any mind to linux for other developers. It's a
mostly unused platform for almost all demographics... except actual
developers.

This is not the kind of application I was expecting to "not support linux".
That said, They're not actually supporting windows right now either, so I
guess for designers only. Oh well.

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mooted1
As a Webflow user, this seems to handle a lot of the things that annoy me
about Webflow and gives the author more freedom. All around, it seems like a
better product. Super keen on giving this a go when it's ready. Oh _and_ no
monthly subscription charge, it would appear. Fantastic.

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stcredzero
Certain technical things really are amenable to the Archy inspired "Zoomworld"
spatial organization ideas behind iOS 7. There are lots of things that are
best understood in diagrams, as flows of information, or material. Scheduling
natural gas or petroleum, for example. Operations that data scientists do to
tables of data in something like Stata are another example.

That said, not all things are suitable for this. For many things, you still
want code. I suspect that there are opportunities for people to find
harmonious ways of blending the two.

EDIT: Wouldn't something like hosting a web app be amenable to a
Archy/Zoomworld style representation? The relationship between front-end
servers, app server workers, back-end processes, and databases could exist as
a giant diagram.

~~~
shaneofalltrad
speaking on iOS 7, I would love to look at that page in an iOS 7 phone,
landscape and see how much gets cropped out of view.

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GhotiFish
> We have no plans to bring Macaw to Linux at this time. Once the Mac and
> Windows versions are released we will look into Linux.

 _damn it_.

~~~
asciimo
Their language was slightly more optimistic in this October 10 comment:

> There is definitely a chance we will port Macaw over to Linux. We are
> working on getting the Mac and Windows versions out first then we will re-
> evaluate.

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medell
In the sneak peak, at 7:20, Why Command-Option-C to copy visual styles? A
simple Command-C to copy, and the user has the choice to Cmd-V to paste as
normal, or modify with Cmd-Opt-V to paste only the style seems more intuitive.
Looking forward to this! Nice logo animation & sound btw!

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manuelflara
I have to say after trying a few visual website editors (Dreamweaver, et),
I've pretty much given up on this. But this video is really impressive. As
someone else said, this could be really awesome specially for beginners.
Looking forward to try the final product.

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jebblue
FYI, on Ubuntu 12.04 using Google Chrome, the Vimeo player kept going black
after starting the video, I had to keep making small movements with the mouse
to keep the video showing.

It's almost like a div is made black and floated over the top of it if that's
possible.

~~~
MaxGabriel
I had the same problem on OS X 10.8.5 running Chrome 30.0.1599.69. When I
clicked the fullscreen button, the black went away, but it was only showing a
static image of the program (I did have audio though).

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dsego
You can help fund it on kickstarter -
[http://kickstarter.com/projects/1658523427/macaw-the-code-
sa...](http://kickstarter.com/projects/1658523427/macaw-the-code-savvy-web-
design-tool).

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afandian
"Stop writing the mark-up for your designs by hand, let us do it" more like.
Perhaps this is an example of where the original title _is_ misleading and
requires editorialising.

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MAGZine
That makes them sound like a front-end development agency.

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parvatzar
Awesome demo and App. Interesting name for the App. Made me look it up. Macaw:
a large long-tailed parrot with brightly coloured plumage, native to Central
and South America.

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ezequiel-garzon
Any ideas as to how much it will cost?

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cturhan
If you support 99$ on kickstarter they will give free. There is no pricing
option they mentioned other than that :)

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ezequiel-garzon
Got it. Thanks!

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camus2
It looks great, i wonder what technology it uses(what is it built upon?
qt?...)

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camus2
ok , i found the answer , looks like it is JS/HTML with chrome embedded. I
hope it will run fast.

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abhididdigi
Not coming to Windows? :(

As you mentioned it's coming to app store soon?

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teleclimber
It is coming to Windows... eventually.

[https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896](https://twitter.com/macawco/statuses/378215232512208896)

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sixQuarks
This. Is. Beautiful.

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dancecodes
nice palette!

where is that big red button for start?

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pjmlp
Stop the press. Web developers discover tooling desktop RAD developers were
using in the 90's.

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skylan_q
RADs didn't target web browsers (and especially not to this extent)

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pjmlp
Because browsers are for _documents_.

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kkotak
Divshot?

