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463 points 8organicbits | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.253s | source
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al_borland ◴[] No.44308824[source]
I like the spirit of it, but the execution isn't what I'm looking for. With this being a hosted solution, it makes me dependent on another SaaS tool for little personal projects. If it's a little counter needed for an afternoon, that's not such a big deal. However, if I'm looking for a scrappy little app I may use for years, this is a problem. Plus, no matter how low the learning curve gets, it will still exist, so I want something that I can use for the long term for things like this. This makes my mind go to approachable and easy languages that allow the user to easily throw a GUI on it. I don't think code needs to be completely abstracted away, just made easy and tailored to what people will do. Look at how many people on MySpace were able to learn some CSS. Maybe they copy and paste someone else's stuff at first, but that's the foot in the door before they eventually look at how to tweak it.

I typically end up using basic HTML/CSS/JS for stuff like this today. If I really need backend code, I'll use basic PHP (no frameworks or anything). But this ties me to a browser, which I'm not always a fan of. Some of these fairly scrappy little projects at work (done in the browser like this, and with AutoHotKey) have been going for 10+ years now, with very little maintenance. The AHK script I haven't touched in probably 8 years, since I moved to macOS at work, yet people still use it countless times per day. If AHK decides to stop operating, it's no big deal, the code that exists will still run. The same can't be said for these SaaS solution to this problem. People looking for scrappy solutions aren't looking to remake their solution every time a founder decides to move on to something else more interesting or profitable.

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belmarca ◴[] No.44310325[source]
You should check out https://codeboot.org .

It's a fully client-side Python IDE with single-stepping, a virtual (non-hierarchical) filesystem, an FFI to call JS code and a few other things (see the docs). Sharing apps in CodeBoot is trivial: right-click the "play" button and copy a shareable URL. I have helped people solve data wrangling problems using CodeBoot and they now have their little app bookmarked. It works really well.

I could go on for a while. AMA if you're interested. We're actively working on it and some great new features are on the way!

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jorvi ◴[] No.44311365[source]
Can I just say I adore the absolute utility of the UX and UI?

No welcome screen, just dropped straight into the main interface which itself has no excess buttons or styling wasted on it.

To me this is beautiful.

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belmarca ◴[] No.44311607[source]
Really glad you appreciate! We use it to teach introductory programing courses and the simplistic UI is purpose-built for that use-case.

It really is a joy to program with, but we're struggling a bit to communicate everything it can do. We are working hard on that front and should have a landing page and better explanatory material soon. We're very interested in feedback. If anybody wants to learn more, just contact me through the email in my profile.

Cheers!

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jorvi ◴[] No.44313378[source]
Instead of a landing page, may I suggest a '?' button, or at least putting the landing page on https://codeboot.org/something and redirecting from referrers but not direct loads?

Browsers are getting more and more aggressive about deleting cookies / making cookies ephemeral, and nothing is more annoying that dealing with one or multiple pop-ups on each page visit.

For an example of how bad it can get, load LMarena in a private window.

  Cookie pop-up, agree > type something, press enter > ToS pop-up, agree > press enter again > processing > answer > type somethi- verify Cloudflare, agree > type something
Other than that I don't have much comments yet except that it seems a nice product!
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1. belmarca ◴[] No.44314531[source]
We are thinking about using two domains: codeboot.org for "company" things, and codeboot.app for the actual IDE and user applications. Or vice-versa.

We don't want to break the current experience but we need to do a better job of explaining what our software can do.

I appreciate your comments!