Re:WebStudio: Open visual development for the open web
by solardev on Friday June 16, 2023 @11:52AM
(#36358725)
As a frontend dev, I have to disagree. The web is primarily a visual medium, and it's quite odd and inefficient that we have to code UI in declarative markup rather than a visual IDE. Visual Studio had better layout tools for WinForms... two decades ago.
Tweaking CSS and manually dragging the viewport around is not a great way to make responsive layouts. Flex and Grid are a nightmare of confusingly named properties (align self? justify content?) that would be much simpler to lay out with visual guides and snaps.
Dreamweaver had its uses back in the day, but sadly couldn't keep up with the pace of framework development (in CSS and Javascript) and became less useful over time.
These days I wish I could export Figma layouts to framework skeletons and go from there.
Of course there's stuff that's easier to just write in code (business logic, chiefly), but complex layouts that are ultimately rendered visually? I see no reason they shouldn't be laid out visually to begin with, InDesign style.
Just as designers might not understand the tooling of dev environments very well, maybe it's the case that some coders don't understand the power and benefits of visual design tooling? They certainly have their value, if you know how to integrate them into your workflow.
Tweaking CSS and manually dragging the viewport around is not a great way to make responsive layouts. Flex and Grid are a nightmare of confusingly named properties (align self? justify content?) that would be much simpler to lay out with visual guides and snaps.
Dreamweaver had its uses back in the day, but sadly couldn't keep up with the pace of framework development (in CSS and Javascript) and became less useful over time.
These days I wish I could export Figma layouts to framework skeletons and go from there.
Of course there's stuff that's easier to just write in code (business logic, chiefly), but complex layouts that are ultimately rendered visually? I see no reason they shouldn't be laid out visually to begin with, InDesign style.
Just as designers might not understand the tooling of dev environments very well, maybe it's the case that some coders don't understand the power and benefits of visual design tooling? They certainly have their value, if you know how to integrate them into your workflow.
I'll have to check out this Webflow thing...