robertnowell

I was debating with a friend about the benefits of no-code versus code tools.

We're both devs, and we were arguing about the best, fastest way to build a good web app.

There are clear best choices for no-code tools (e.g. shopify for e-commerce).

But are there equally obvious choices for web apps that still require devs?

If helpful, my personal goals when building a web app are speed, quality, and flexibility.

Speed: how quickly can I go from design to shipped app.

Quality: can a new developer quickly onboard and understand the code and how to contribute.

Flexibility: I don't want to be limited in what we can do. This should be a solution that can work for (most) any kind of web app.

I think my default would be Frontend: React; Backend: Google cloud functions; Data: Firestore; Infra: Firebase

But tbh it still takes much longer / more effort to spin up a web app with moderate functionality than it does to create a shopify store.

Maybe these aren't the best / most up to date tools. I'd love to hear what other people think is best.

I've been a little obsessed recently with why PageDraw failed (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16467387). Pagedraw promised to generate react code from sketch or figma designs.

It would make my life much easier if they had succeeded. In that world, when my cofounder and I finish polishing our designs in figma, we click a button and (most of) the React UI code is written for us. All we would have to do is wire up the generated components to data sources, and voila. Take the rest of the day off.

If it had worked well, it could automate a good amount of the boring UI work I need to do on a consistent basis. Why am I still manually writing styled components when the information is all there in figma already?

What do you think, HN?

Curious if anyone knows of great solutions for this problem or thinks that something like this should (or shouldn't / couldn't) exist.

What do folks think of Anima? https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-figma-to-react/

Or Overlay? https://www.overlay-tech.com/

Figma's own blog post on this: https://www.figma.com/blog/introducing-figma-to-react/

A reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/FigmaDesign/comments/ht9krs/best_way_to_convert_designs_from_figma_to_react/

Is anyone else working on this?

Looking for recommendations on the best places online to co-work and interact with others who are focused on the hard unsexy work involved in going from zero to one.

Ideally places where technical folks gather to bond, exchange ideas, and work together.

Imagine an online version of NYC's Recurse Center or YC startup school -- high caliber people working hard toward achieving difficult things.

Any discord / slack / websites / other groups where smart people are hanging out and working on stuff?