13 ms·

Pingendo – Free, simple app for Bootstrap prototyping

356 points by rhapsodyv 11y ago

yazriel 11y ago
Free beats the rest ;)
gsere 11y ago
Pingendo for Bootstrap 4 preview available here http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html
- josteink 11y ago
  Not based on standards-compliant code though.
- mkrn 11y ago
  This is amazing, best yet! Wondering what's the status of that? Can't see save button..
avinassh 11y ago
Anyone have details on the technology behind it? I mean is it a cross platform single app written in JS/Electron or individual native languages etc?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- simple10 11y ago
  It's an Atom/Electron app.
jiblylabs 11y ago
Every tool that makes prototyping cheaper & faster is more than welcome!
- jetpm 11y ago
  I've made an app & website that lets you quickly try out java snippets on android, e.g. if you see a code snippet on stack overflow you can just copy paste it and throw it in and let it run on your phone. But I didn't continue with it because no one uses it :) https://runondroid.com/ https://runondroid.com/
  - js4all 11y ago
    Nice. It looks useful to me.
  - themartorana 11y ago
    Yo that's pretty neat right there...
- josteink 11y ago
  If the tool itself only supports running on Chrome and Safari (i.e. webkit), I wouldn't trust the tool to produce code anywhere near standards compliant or deployable on the public web.
glossyscr 11y ago
Slightly OT: Is it just me or is Bootstrap a bit of an overkill nowadays? I know you can import what you need and keep the lib size small but the overall framework feels aged and many feature are no rocket-science anymore. Still some features are handy but again, is it worth it? Without any customization you have this typical thousands times seen Bootstrap look. Only few of the available Bootstrap themes have an original and from Bootstrap outstanding look but then you add even more bloat to your site figuring out what CSS you could leave out. You could also customize yourself but again why not quickly do the stuff without Bootstrap? FE development got quite far these days and today's CSS and JS is not your daddy's HTML anymore, Flexbox is great and there're tons of specialized and modular libs. Besides, Sass and Less were never my favorites but this would be a minor pick. They are ok to get along. Last but not least they claim to be mobile-first which is IMO far off and the biggest deal breaker. Just open the Bootstrap page on a newer iPhone (eg 6) and open the menu. There's some significant lag until the menu opens and then the menu-open animation sluggishly stutters running at very low framerate. This could have be done with native CSS and hardware-accelerated 3d-transforms in a responsive and butter-smooth manner with a just few lines. Just having a responsive grid-system doesn't make Bootstrap mobile-first. I believe that Bootstrap could be good for non consumer facing sites where the audience is less demanding. Eg you need to build an internal reporting dashboard for some company departments and it doesn't have to slick, smooth or sexy. Just a dashboard which is faster and more flexible than sending Excel sheets back and forth. Then yes, Bootstrap is a good choice. Don't want to be too negative, maybe it's just my cluenessless but could somebody enlighten me: why do I need else Bootstrap in 2016?
- c_prompt 11y ago
  > Slightly OT: Is it just me or is Bootstrap a bit of an overkill nowadays? Coming from someone whose PHP skills aren't too shabby but his graphical design skills stink, I'd say no. From the very beginning of my current project, I've had difficulty finding a partner with strong UI skills. In fact, I chose my early frameworks almost solely upon needing to rely on the UI design of others. UI just isn't a strength. Hell, I don't even match clothes well and (I kid you not) I still keep a note in my phone about which colors of shirts and pants match together. Although Bootstrap is fat, as you suggest, for someone like me having to do almost all UI on my own and who's been told his logo looks like it was done by a toddler with a large paintbrush, it is wonderful to be able to drop Bootstrap in so I can focus my attention elsewhere. A tool like Pingendo makes it even easier for me.
oelmekki 11y ago
I'm very impressed, thanks for this app. Until now, I used Pencil for prototyping on linux, which was not very efficient because it's more focused on desktop app building. Totally love the fact that there's a real browser behind and I can just add bootstrap classes on elements I want. Great job, instant hook.
cdevs 11y ago
I downloaded it one day and realized it was a attempted closed software atom app...just unzip it if you want to comment out their JavaScript security line. Other than that it seems like they took most of their code from a similiar atom project that is completely free and open source.
- thasmin 11y ago
  What's the name of the open source version? It sounds interesting.
- gsere 11y ago
  I'm the author of Pingendo. Which is this "similar atom project" you mention ?
  - mandeepj 11y ago
    not sure if he is talking about this - https://github.com/atom https://github.com/atom
  - cdevs 11y ago
    Sorry got pingendo mixed up with the pinegrow devs pushing their 100$ software around here when there are great alternatives such as this. Sorry for the trolling. I'll delete my comment once I'm on a desktop. Question where is the "pin" in these bootstrap editors names coming from?
    - mattront 11y ago
      http://pinegrow.com http://pinegrow.com, now that you mention it :) Pine in Pinegrow comes from Pine trees and no code comes from Atom. Besides Bootstrap, PG also supports Foundation, plain HTML, converting HTML pages to WordPress themes, master pages, smart components etc and aims to be a kind of modern Dreamweaver replacement. And sorry that you feel offended by my kids having to eat.
      - cdevs 11y ago
vayeate 11y ago
As a web developer who works almost exclusively with Boostrap and finds the beginning stages of building a site with Bootstrap to be very tedious, I love this. My boss (does a lot of web design work but not coding) might find this interesting too. He's been wanting to be able to sit and make mockups but can't find the motivation or maybe time to do it.
- vayeate 11y ago
  Also, some quick feedback: The HTML and CSS panel was hidden by default for me. It was a little hard to find. There's also no quick way to hide it again that I can see. I have to resize it to minimum. Might be worth exploring how double clicking works with PHPStorm (maximizes it) and adding a minimize option to right click context menu. Also undocking options for CSS/HTML would be nice for dual screen use.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
arihant 11y ago
What is up with every app requiring 10.8 and above? It's fine for others but very unsettling for developer tools. I still know devs on 10.6.x! This is even more weird when you consider that laptops that came with 10.7 went out of AppleCare a few months ago.
- mhurron 11y ago
  > What is up with every app requiring 10.8 and above Even Apple has stopped supporting 10.8 and below.
- chrisseaton 11y ago
  Why can't everyone just upgrade?
  - arihant 11y ago
    It can be very messy to upgrade for a sizeable chunk of developers. Linked libraries, lost compatibility. If the system gets unstable you lose years of installed dependencies. I mean some of the unix apps take literally hours to install, and a faulty upgrade can lose tens of them. You forget how you resolved conflicts, gotten stuff to work.
    - chrisseaton 11y ago
      Why would you figure out how to install something, and then not automate it so you didn't have to do it again? I think if you can't recreate your system in an afternoon with just a backup of your user files, then you're already on borrowed time.
- city41 11y ago
  This app is built on Electron, which requires 10.8.
mandeepj 11y ago
is it a coincidence? Bootstrap also introduces something similar today - bootstrap studio (https://bootstrapstudio.io/ https://bootstrapstudio.io/) is there any difference?
- wolfgke 11y ago
  Is Bootstrap Studio really from the Bootstrap devs? According to this website (https://bootstrapstudio.io/ https://bootstrapstudio.io/) Bootstrap Studio is a tool developed by Zine EOOD, a Bulgarian company: http://zine.bg/ http://zine.bg/
ryanmarsh 11y ago
Would have loved if they'd signed the code so I didn't get the "unidentified developer" message when I try to run it on OSX.
- jordanlev 11y ago
  FYI, if you right-click the application icon and choose "open" from the popup menu, it will let you run the app. (I agree that it's annoying to have to do that though)
jordanlev 11y ago
Suggestion for you FAQ: > 4) Why use Bootstrap? > Because Bootstrap is the most widely adopted development framework, with the largest thriving community and most extensive documentation. How about something a little better than "because everyone else is using it", such as: "Bootstrap gives us a common vocabulary of classes and components that makes it easier for beginners to build fully-functioning markup, and makes it easier for developers of all levels to communicate with one another. It also provides constraints on the otherwise-unlimited possibilities of HTML+CSS which makes it possible for us to build this GUI tool that interacts with it."
- smaili 11y ago
  Agreed. And if you really wanted to, you could supplement it: "...making it the most widely adopted development framework."
- elchief 11y ago
  Meh, it's not a terrible way to market something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof Also, the more CDNs using it, the more likely is to be in your browser cache, and the easier it is to find devs.
- volaski 11y ago
  There's too much fluff in that description. If i were a potential user and saw that line, i would just close the tab without trying to understand what you're trying to say. The op rightly described the essence of what makes bootstrap compelling imo.
  - jordanlev 11y ago
    Not being able to understand something doesn't make it "fluff". I believe that there is actual meaning to what I wrote (maybe you disagree, and that's okay... but it would be nice to hear what exactly you think is "fluffy" about my explanation).
    - krotton 11y ago
Scarbutt 11y ago
The website says they are funded, how do they intend to make money? or this a nonprofit?
- bobwaycott 11y ago
  From the FAQ: 3) Is Pingendo free? Yes. What is free today will be free tomorrow. Premium services are coming and they will pay our bills.
josteink 11y ago
From: http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html > Your browser is not fully supported. For the best experience please use latest version of Chrome or Safari browser WTH. Are we black in the dark ages of MSIE6 or what? Get your shit together. Seriously. Sorry about the "non constructive" tone, but putting shit like this out on the public web in 2016 should be a jailable offense. This is just not acceptable. Not even near.
- kami8845 11y ago
  If you actually felt sorry you should probably delete that trash post of yours.
  - josteink 11y ago
    If lazy ass msie6-grade devs don't get told off when they do stuff like this they may get the impression that it's actually acceptable. That's not happening on my watch. We've been here once already. That was enough.
    - dang 11y ago
      You can't comment like this on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all.
  - dang 11y ago
    It's better to flag comments than make the thread worse by continuing a bad subthread. To flag a comment, click its timestamp to go to its page, then click 'flag'. You need a small amount of karma (currently 31) before flag links appear.
BorisMelnik 11y ago
I've been using Pingendo for about 1 year now at home and at work. Super fun app to use, and makes some really nice and clean code in the end.
kybernetyk 11y ago
This looks very very similar to http://blocsapp.com http://blocsapp.com (as in the UI being almost an exact copy).
sogen 11y ago
I'm on Safari trying the demo (v4), it's missing the scroll bar :/
JeremyMorgan 11y ago
This thing is amazing. I am a backend developer, and over the last couple of years becoming "full stack" for web projects. For me I can do CSS/Photoshop stuff but I'd rather hand code assembly language than CSS wrangling anyday. So this tool is great. I think if the target audience is "non designers" who just want to get something done, it's perfect. I generally throw together UIs at work and pass them on to our designers who of course throw it out and put in real stuff, but at least they know they're starting with a functional product to work from. That's where I think this tool will really work for people.
jordache 11y ago
froze 5 min into using the app, whilst browsing stock photo to insert as the hero image... the app felt very clunky. As a developer, I felt very restricted.. This definitely not intended for developers...

356 points by rhapsodyv 11y ago

Free beats the rest ;)

gsere 11y ago

Pingendo for Bootstrap 4 preview available here http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html

josteink 11y ago
Not based on standards-compliant code though.
mkrn 11y ago
This is amazing, best yet! Wondering what's the status of that? Can't see save button..

avinassh 11y ago

Anyone have details on the technology behind it? I mean is it a cross platform single app written in JS/Electron or individual native languages etc?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
simple10 11y ago
It's an Atom/Electron app.

jiblylabs 11y ago

Every tool that makes prototyping cheaper & faster is more than welcome!

jetpm 11y ago
I've made an app & website that lets you quickly try out java snippets on android, e.g. if you see a code snippet on stack overflow you can just copy paste it and throw it in and let it run on your phone. But I didn't continue with it because no one uses it :) https://runondroid.com/ https://runondroid.com/
- js4all 11y ago
  Nice. It looks useful to me.
- themartorana 11y ago
  Yo that's pretty neat right there...
josteink 11y ago
If the tool itself only supports running on Chrome and Safari (i.e. webkit), I wouldn't trust the tool to produce code anywhere near standards compliant or deployable on the public web.

glossyscr 11y ago

Slightly OT: Is it just me or is Bootstrap a bit of an overkill nowadays? I know you can import what you need and keep the lib size small but the overall framework feels aged and many feature are no rocket-science anymore. Still some features are handy but again, is it worth it? Without any customization you have this typical thousands times seen Bootstrap look. Only few of the available Bootstrap themes have an original and from Bootstrap outstanding look but then you add even more bloat to your site figuring out what CSS you could leave out. You could also customize yourself but again why not quickly do the stuff without Bootstrap? FE development got quite far these days and today's CSS and JS is not your daddy's HTML anymore, Flexbox is great and there're tons of specialized and modular libs. Besides, Sass and Less were never my favorites but this would be a minor pick. They are ok to get along. Last but not least they claim to be mobile-first which is IMO far off and the biggest deal breaker. Just open the Bootstrap page on a newer iPhone (eg 6) and open the menu. There's some significant lag until the menu opens and then the menu-open animation sluggishly stutters running at very low framerate. This could have be done with native CSS and hardware-accelerated 3d-transforms in a responsive and butter-smooth manner with a just few lines. Just having a responsive grid-system doesn't make Bootstrap mobile-first. I believe that Bootstrap could be good for non consumer facing sites where the audience is less demanding. Eg you need to build an internal reporting dashboard for some company departments and it doesn't have to slick, smooth or sexy. Just a dashboard which is faster and more flexible than sending Excel sheets back and forth. Then yes, Bootstrap is a good choice. Don't want to be too negative, maybe it's just my cluenessless but could somebody enlighten me: why do I need else Bootstrap in 2016?

c_prompt 11y ago
> Slightly OT: Is it just me or is Bootstrap a bit of an overkill nowadays? Coming from someone whose PHP skills aren't too shabby but his graphical design skills stink, I'd say no. From the very beginning of my current project, I've had difficulty finding a partner with strong UI skills. In fact, I chose my early frameworks almost solely upon needing to rely on the UI design of others. UI just isn't a strength. Hell, I don't even match clothes well and (I kid you not) I still keep a note in my phone about which colors of shirts and pants match together. Although Bootstrap is fat, as you suggest, for someone like me having to do almost all UI on my own and who's been told his logo looks like it was done by a toddler with a large paintbrush, it is wonderful to be able to drop Bootstrap in so I can focus my attention elsewhere. A tool like Pingendo makes it even easier for me.

oelmekki 11y ago

I'm very impressed, thanks for this app. Until now, I used Pencil for prototyping on linux, which was not very efficient because it's more focused on desktop app building. Totally love the fact that there's a real browser behind and I can just add bootstrap classes on elements I want. Great job, instant hook.

cdevs 11y ago

I downloaded it one day and realized it was a attempted closed software atom app...just unzip it if you want to comment out their JavaScript security line. Other than that it seems like they took most of their code from a similiar atom project that is completely free and open source.

thasmin 11y ago
What's the name of the open source version? It sounds interesting.
gsere 11y ago
I'm the author of Pingendo. Which is this "similar atom project" you mention ?
- mandeepj 11y ago
  not sure if he is talking about this - https://github.com/atom https://github.com/atom
- cdevs 11y ago
  Sorry got pingendo mixed up with the pinegrow devs pushing their 100$ software around here when there are great alternatives such as this. Sorry for the trolling. I'll delete my comment once I'm on a desktop. Question where is the "pin" in these bootstrap editors names coming from?
  - mattront 11y ago
    http://pinegrow.com http://pinegrow.com, now that you mention it :) Pine in Pinegrow comes from Pine trees and no code comes from Atom. Besides Bootstrap, PG also supports Foundation, plain HTML, converting HTML pages to WordPress themes, master pages, smart components etc and aims to be a kind of modern Dreamweaver replacement. And sorry that you feel offended by my kids having to eat.
    - cdevs 11y ago

vayeate 11y ago

As a web developer who works almost exclusively with Boostrap and finds the beginning stages of building a site with Bootstrap to be very tedious, I love this. My boss (does a lot of web design work but not coding) might find this interesting too. He's been wanting to be able to sit and make mockups but can't find the motivation or maybe time to do it.

vayeate 11y ago
Also, some quick feedback: The HTML and CSS panel was hidden by default for me. It was a little hard to find. There's also no quick way to hide it again that I can see. I have to resize it to minimum. Might be worth exploring how double clicking works with PHPStorm (maximizes it) and adding a minimize option to right click context menu. Also undocking options for CSS/HTML would be nice for dual screen use.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

arihant 11y ago

What is up with every app requiring 10.8 and above? It's fine for others but very unsettling for developer tools. I still know devs on 10.6.x! This is even more weird when you consider that laptops that came with 10.7 went out of AppleCare a few months ago.

mhurron 11y ago
> What is up with every app requiring 10.8 and above Even Apple has stopped supporting 10.8 and below.
chrisseaton 11y ago
Why can't everyone just upgrade?
- arihant 11y ago
  It can be very messy to upgrade for a sizeable chunk of developers. Linked libraries, lost compatibility. If the system gets unstable you lose years of installed dependencies. I mean some of the unix apps take literally hours to install, and a faulty upgrade can lose tens of them. You forget how you resolved conflicts, gotten stuff to work.
  - chrisseaton 11y ago
    Why would you figure out how to install something, and then not automate it so you didn't have to do it again? I think if you can't recreate your system in an afternoon with just a backup of your user files, then you're already on borrowed time.
city41 11y ago
This app is built on Electron, which requires 10.8.

mandeepj 11y ago

is it a coincidence? Bootstrap also introduces something similar today - bootstrap studio (https://bootstrapstudio.io/ https://bootstrapstudio.io/) is there any difference?

wolfgke 11y ago
Is Bootstrap Studio really from the Bootstrap devs? According to this website (https://bootstrapstudio.io/ https://bootstrapstudio.io/) Bootstrap Studio is a tool developed by Zine EOOD, a Bulgarian company: http://zine.bg/ http://zine.bg/

ryanmarsh 11y ago

Would have loved if they'd signed the code so I didn't get the "unidentified developer" message when I try to run it on OSX.

jordanlev 11y ago
FYI, if you right-click the application icon and choose "open" from the popup menu, it will let you run the app. (I agree that it's annoying to have to do that though)

jordanlev 11y ago

Suggestion for you FAQ: > 4) Why use Bootstrap? > Because Bootstrap is the most widely adopted development framework, with the largest thriving community and most extensive documentation. How about something a little better than "because everyone else is using it", such as: "Bootstrap gives us a common vocabulary of classes and components that makes it easier for beginners to build fully-functioning markup, and makes it easier for developers of all levels to communicate with one another. It also provides constraints on the otherwise-unlimited possibilities of HTML+CSS which makes it possible for us to build this GUI tool that interacts with it."

smaili 11y ago
Agreed. And if you really wanted to, you could supplement it: "...making it the most widely adopted development framework."
elchief 11y ago
Meh, it's not a terrible way to market something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof Also, the more CDNs using it, the more likely is to be in your browser cache, and the easier it is to find devs.
volaski 11y ago
There's too much fluff in that description. If i were a potential user and saw that line, i would just close the tab without trying to understand what you're trying to say. The op rightly described the essence of what makes bootstrap compelling imo.
- jordanlev 11y ago
  Not being able to understand something doesn't make it "fluff". I believe that there is actual meaning to what I wrote (maybe you disagree, and that's okay... but it would be nice to hear what exactly you think is "fluffy" about my explanation).
  - krotton 11y ago

Scarbutt 11y ago

The website says they are funded, how do they intend to make money? or this a nonprofit?

bobwaycott 11y ago
From the FAQ: 3) Is Pingendo free? Yes. What is free today will be free tomorrow. Premium services are coming and they will pay our bills.

josteink 11y ago

From: http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html http://v4.pingendo.com/playground.html > Your browser is not fully supported. For the best experience please use latest version of Chrome or Safari browser WTH. Are we black in the dark ages of MSIE6 or what? Get your shit together. Seriously. Sorry about the "non constructive" tone, but putting shit like this out on the public web in 2016 should be a jailable offense. This is just not acceptable. Not even near.

kami8845 11y ago
If you actually felt sorry you should probably delete that trash post of yours.
- josteink 11y ago
  If lazy ass msie6-grade devs don't get told off when they do stuff like this they may get the impression that it's actually acceptable. That's not happening on my watch. We've been here once already. That was enough.
  - dang 11y ago
    You can't comment like this on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all.
- dang 11y ago
  It's better to flag comments than make the thread worse by continuing a bad subthread. To flag a comment, click its timestamp to go to its page, then click 'flag'. You need a small amount of karma (currently 31) before flag links appear.

BorisMelnik 11y ago

I've been using Pingendo for about 1 year now at home and at work. Super fun app to use, and makes some really nice and clean code in the end.

kybernetyk 11y ago

This looks very very similar to http://blocsapp.com http://blocsapp.com (as in the UI being almost an exact copy).

sogen 11y ago

I'm on Safari trying the demo (v4), it's missing the scroll bar :/

JeremyMorgan 11y ago

This thing is amazing. I am a backend developer, and over the last couple of years becoming "full stack" for web projects. For me I can do CSS/Photoshop stuff but I'd rather hand code assembly language than CSS wrangling anyday. So this tool is great. I think if the target audience is "non designers" who just want to get something done, it's perfect. I generally throw together UIs at work and pass them on to our designers who of course throw it out and put in real stuff, but at least they know they're starting with a functional product to work from. That's where I think this tool will really work for people.

jordache 11y ago

froze 5 min into using the app, whilst browsing stock photo to insert as the hero image... the app felt very clunky. As a developer, I felt very restricted.. This definitely not intended for developers...