Either that app is really good, or the demo video was really good.<p>I normally don't get excited over tools like these, but wow that actually seemed very well done and very impressive.<p>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.
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.
I had actually expected something for "real" code. (e.g. Scala, Go, younameit)<p>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".<p>However, this looks like an interesting tool! Too bad that you only seem to be aiming for OSX. Are ports planned?
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 <i>and</i> no monthly subscription charge, it would appear. Fantastic.
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.<p>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.<p>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.
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!
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.
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.<p>It's almost like a div is made black and floated over the top of it if that's possible.
You can help fund it on kickstarter - <a href="http://kickstarter.com/projects/1658523427/macaw-the-code-savvy-web-design-tool" rel="nofollow">http://kickstarter.com/projects/1658523427/macaw-the-code-sa...</a>.
"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 <i>is</i> misleading and requires editorialising.
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.