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Show HN: Guppy, a GUI desktop app that replaces the terminal for React dev

37 points by joshwcomeau 8y ago

joshwcomeau 8y ago
Hi HN! This is a project of mine that has been in the works for the past couple months. The goal is to make modern web development more accessible for folks without a traditional programming background, by deferring the need to learn a command-line interface until later. Specifically, it manages projects for you by solving 3 traditionally-CLI-only problems: - Running a local dev server - Executing NPM scripts for building, testing, etc - Managing NPM dependencies This is an early Alpha, and I have much larger ambitions for the project, but I'm releasing it early to collect feedback and see if this is indeed something that would benefit folks. I do realize that the audience on HN will by-and-large already be comfortable on the command line, and so this is of limited utility for y'all, but if y'all have friends/family looking to learn modern web dev, I'd be keen to get their thoughts on this project.
ctvo 8y ago
I volunteer to teach coding to folks starting out. I question the premise that using react-create-app and npm is a barrier to entry and that animations and a UI make for a better experience. There are a lot of things that are confusing, but npm install <X> or npm start hasn't been one of them in my experience.
- joshwcomeau 8y ago
  Hm, you might be right, but I think that people who have access to someone to guide them are in a different position than folks trying to make sense of it on their own. The subset of terminal commands needed for interacting with NPM is minimal, but I'd bet it would be a lot more daunting for someone trying to make sense of the universe of meta-react-stuff and unsure what stuff's important and what stuff isn't. When I was 12 I decided I wanted to learn how to program, and I failed miserably because I didn't know where to start and very much picked the wrong place (I bought a massive reference manual for C from a bookstore). So I'm particularly sensitive to the fact that people have finite motivation and patience, and are sometimes trying to figure this out haphazardly (and so a friendly UI actually is important, because it'll stand out as something familiar in a sea of black terminal screenshots). The idealistic future I imagine is that Guppy provides built-in support for a bunch of common tasks (I definitely don't want it to include a whole Git client, for example, but maybe a limited subset would be helpful), and direction for the stuff it doesn't bundle (like choosing an IDE, debugging, whatever). The larger philosophy is that tools designed for professionals will always be more complex than they need to be for beginners, and there should be a stepping stone. But yeah, I am receptive to the idea that maybe this is the wrong approach. Maybe Codesandbox and online IDEs make more sense?

37 points by joshwcomeau 8y ago

Hi HN! This is a project of mine that has been in the works for the past couple months. The goal is to make modern web development more accessible for folks without a traditional programming background, by deferring the need to learn a command-line interface until later. Specifically, it manages projects for you by solving 3 traditionally-CLI-only problems: - Running a local dev server - Executing NPM scripts for building, testing, etc - Managing NPM dependencies This is an early Alpha, and I have much larger ambitions for the project, but I'm releasing it early to collect feedback and see if this is indeed something that would benefit folks. I do realize that the audience on HN will by-and-large already be comfortable on the command line, and so this is of limited utility for y'all, but if y'all have friends/family looking to learn modern web dev, I'd be keen to get their thoughts on this project.

ctvo 8y ago

I volunteer to teach coding to folks starting out. I question the premise that using react-create-app and npm is a barrier to entry and that animations and a UI make for a better experience. There are a lot of things that are confusing, but npm install <X> or npm start hasn't been one of them in my experience.

joshwcomeau 8y ago
Hm, you might be right, but I think that people who have access to someone to guide them are in a different position than folks trying to make sense of it on their own. The subset of terminal commands needed for interacting with NPM is minimal, but I'd bet it would be a lot more daunting for someone trying to make sense of the universe of meta-react-stuff and unsure what stuff's important and what stuff isn't. When I was 12 I decided I wanted to learn how to program, and I failed miserably because I didn't know where to start and very much picked the wrong place (I bought a massive reference manual for C from a bookstore). So I'm particularly sensitive to the fact that people have finite motivation and patience, and are sometimes trying to figure this out haphazardly (and so a friendly UI actually is important, because it'll stand out as something familiar in a sea of black terminal screenshots). The idealistic future I imagine is that Guppy provides built-in support for a bunch of common tasks (I definitely don't want it to include a whole Git client, for example, but maybe a limited subset would be helpful), and direction for the stuff it doesn't bundle (like choosing an IDE, debugging, whatever). The larger philosophy is that tools designed for professionals will always be more complex than they need to be for beginners, and there should be a stepping stone. But yeah, I am receptive to the idea that maybe this is the wrong approach. Maybe Codesandbox and online IDEs make more sense?