Adobe Thermo Rocks My World
I have a habit on this blog of complaining about something, and then quickly finding out that problem has already been solved (perfect example). Well, I say that’s good! Go on, World, give me less to complain about!
In this case, I recently complained about the state of rich prototyping tools, but then today I heard about new beta software from Adobe called Thermo. I’m fully expecting to love Thermo. Adobe’s article on it is extremely short winded, but it sounds very promising. In essence, it lets you draw a user interface (which I love doing in OmniGraffle and Visio) and then wire it up to act like a real website, without writing code. But the code it generates for you is actually usable! A developer can take the UI you’ve mocked up and turn it into a working Flex website.
If Thermo works as I understand it, then it solves all my major complaints about prototyping tools. I still get to draw my UIs, plus I can add interactivity without fiddling with code, plus I can turn my prototype into a working solution.
Of course, I’ll reserve final judgment for when I get to use it. For example, I’m guessing the rich interactions I have to choose from will be somewhat limited, especially at first. I could see Thermo providing a drag-and-drop interaction, but maybe not something more exotic, like an AJAX window resizing interaction. Version 1 will probably still require some hand coding to get just what you want. Nonetheless, I’m excited! Adobe, I’m ready to be a beta tester!
For a little more information, I also found an article at MacWorld magazine.
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Jeff, I really hope you aren’t supporting another wysiwyg. Ugh!
I think I may have to start calling you a “mud-coder.”
Yes, I did just combine a Harry Potter reference with web development. Wow, my nerd plurality is really shining today…
October 4th, 2007 at 11:55 am
What’s wrong with a WYSIWYG? True, a lot of WYSIWYG page designers create horrible code, but there’s no reason to assume that Thermo will too.
Actually, I think Flex separates visual design from code so completely that the code isn’t really affected by the visual design. I’m just speculating, but I think it works this way:
1. You create a visual design like you would in Photoshop or Fireworks.
2. You give the elements in the visual design an ID. Those IDs are compiled in an XML document.
3. The code describes what to do with those elements in the XML document.
That means you could move the visual elements anywhere you want and style them any way you want without really affecting the code.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[…] mentioned Adobe Thermo in an earlier post, but I recently found some more information that I thought was worth sharing. Peter Elst was able […]