

Show HN: Neonto is a visual tool for creating native iOS and Android UIs - pavlov
http://neonto.com/?showhn=1

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pavlov
Hey all,

this is a Mac app that generates native iOS and Android code from a visual
design. There's no runtime involved -- the output code uses native platform
APIs as concisely as possible. You can view a tutorial video on the site to
get a better idea (although the video doesn't cover nearly everything).

This is my longest side project ever... I was previously making a HTML5
animation app called Radi which was released as "Show HN" in 2010, almost
exactly four years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2040844](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2040844)

Neonto Studio Pro is essentially a pivot of the Radi codebase (created by a
new team, not just myself). Instead of HTML5, it generates high-quality
Objective-C and Java code. Instead of an abundance of animation tools, the UI
has a set of generic mobile design tools and patterns.

One particular target for this product is content-centric mobile apps: photo
books, music albums, video apps, or anything else that is built around
content. But you can also use it for more generic "scaffolding" of native
apps.

There's so much that a native app can do, and it's impossible to squeeze it
all into a visual design tool... To address this problem, Neonto Studio has a
rich plugin API that uses JavaScript. The idea is that many projects will use
plugins for core functionality. Plugins can provide their own UIs inside
Neonto Studio, and they write native iOS/Android code on export (so code
generated by a plugin is indistinguishable in the generated code). You can
find a couple of plugins in the "Getting Started" screen in the app, and more
will be published on the blog.

Would love to hear what you think! If you're in the mood for reading, there's
a thorough explanation of the underlying thinking behind this product on
Neonto's blog: [http://blog.neonto.com/?p=44](http://blog.neonto.com/?p=44)

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LoneWolf
Being a mac app makes it totally useless to me, would love to see it on Linux
too or Windows, if it ever happens I will be happy to try it out, since it
would make my life easier.

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tmikaeld
There's no pricing on the site, what's the price after Beta?

~~~
pavlov
Not sure yet. The plan is that Neonto's business would be more about selling
valuable add-ons (cloud services, plugins etc.) rather than the actual app
itself.

So if that happens, the price of the app itself will be as low as possible.

~~~
tmikaeld
Such a pricing is something that i like and would buy into!

Will there be any required subscription lock-in or crippling of essential
features?

~~~
pavlov
The intention is definitely not to cripple anything in the base app, but
rather sell useful add-ons for specific uses and special needs.

Since Neonto Studio generates real native code, we can't limit how you use,
modify or publish the apps you make. So that's one thing that guarantees
you're not locked in.

~~~
tmikaeld
That's quite amazing and very rare!

Thanks for sharing the details, I'll be sure to try it out asap!

