

An open source HTML/CSS framework for prototyping native touch applications - Wolfr_
http://getclank.com/demos/

======
Wolfr_
When I design native apps it makes sense to prototype them in a medium where
it's still cheap to make a design change. This is a framework I have for doing
just that.

------
jdmitch
_The planned 0.2 release is delayed due to little public interest in Clank._
-clank blog

Is user interest enough for the OP, or are you looking for other contributors?

~~~
Wolfr_
User interest is enough but contributors would be better to raise the bar.

I am specifically looking for someone with JS skills to handle building
animation in between screens (similar to push.js in Ratchet
[http://maker.github.io/ratchet/#push](http://maker.github.io/ratchet/#push)
). This in turn is inspired by jquery-pjax (
[https://github.com/defunkt/jquery-pjax](https://github.com/defunkt/jquery-
pjax) )

Explained in short - there should be some way to fetch the HTML for a "new
page" replacing the older page without a page refresh. This way we can have
nice CSS transitions between the pages. If we can plug the effects from
something like Effeckt
([http://h5bp.github.io/Effeckt.css/dist/](http://h5bp.github.io/Effeckt.css/dist/))
in there this could lead to nice demo/prototype material and will also give
the native coders a good idea about the animation.

My speciality is UI design and CSS. My JS is not solid enough for framework
quality javascript.

The demo UI works with Angular.js.

~~~
cheneytsai
I might be able to help a little with this. I have some code somewhere that
keeps a stack of "views" and a view controller that pops them in and out of
the DOM that can be easily animated to be native-like

~~~
Wolfr_
That would be awesome!

------
aram
For anyone interested in frameworks for Android-like UI, check out Fries:

[http://jaunesarmiento.me/fries/](http://jaunesarmiento.me/fries/)

------
jtemplin
Looks like a nice tool.

The value of such of tool though points to one of the reasons why web
technologies will ultimately prevail over native for most applications -- ease
of use.

~~~
Wolfr_
I hope to see the day that given the right development attention one can make
a web app that feels fast like a native app. It might already be possible for
some kinds of apps.

There are apps popping up that are really an ember or angular one pager
wrapped in a native shell.

HTML/CSS on Webkit gives you an amazing layout engine for free. Building UI
for native apps feels like "web coding like it's 1999" with a lot of absolute
positioning and use of sprited images. I wonder if things improved in iOS7.

~~~
jordanthoms
That's an iOS issue, not one inherent with native apps. Android/Qt/Windows
Phone/literally any other toolkit provide flexible layouts which are much more
powerful and often easier to use than CSS. And if you need a custom layout,
you can actually write a new layout manager which is just as fast or faster
than the built in ones, no javascript to set absolute positions on everything.

------
ackfoo
Nice for prototyping, but it needs a button to generate the native code. That
would be truly useful.

~~~
dksidana
Generating native code from html is certainly not easy.

~~~
iancarroll
It's certainly easy with
[http://build.phonegap.com](http://build.phonegap.com)

~~~
aplummer
That's not native code...

~~~
eddieroger
Well, the web view it puts your app in to is native. So that counts, right?

~~~
camus
no it doesnt and it certainly doesnt feel native either. especially with the
latest ios and android os.

~~~
raelshark
Are you saying that the webviews for some reason feel less native in the newer
OS versions, or that the latest native OSes are so fast that the webview's
shortcomings stand out more?

~~~
argonaut
A WebView is just that - a web view. A WebView is just a fancy name for a
browser window embedded inside an app.

So PhoneGap applications are technically "hybrid apps." The WebView portion of
the app is native code - but that really is just a technical nuance with no
implications for performance (in fact, the performance implications are
negative), because it's like claiming that your website is "native" since it
runs in a browser (say, Safari) and the browser is written in native code. But
the non-native portion of the app is what goes inside the WebView
(HTML/CSS/JS).

------
iancarroll
What about Ratchet? How is this different?

~~~
Wolfr_
It's meant to be an evolution of Ratchet - Ratchet is great but it's a bit
silent on Github. Seemingly the creators have moved on. It's all MIT licensed
so the goodness can be continued.

~~~
shahruz
Ratchet's got a v2 that's being worked on right now. Last commit was 5 days
ago.

[https://github.com/maker/ratchet/tree/2.0.0-wip](https://github.com/maker/ratchet/tree/2.0.0-wip)

~~~
Wolfr_
That's great news! Ratchet is truly an example.

------
troels
So what does this have over Ratchet?

