PaintCode 2

[mournit]

I am feeling increasingly frustrated by product websites that assume I already know what their product is. This seems to be especially prevalent on sites of tools meant for developers.

Please, don't make me have to guess by reading your tooltips, feature blurbs, and customer quotes like they are puzzle pieces to the question of "what the hell is this thing!"

At least PaintCode is kind enough to give an overview in their documentation.

[shaunol]

This is becoming an increasingly common and frustrating thing for products posted here to HN.

How did this product even get to the front page when it's almost impossible to actually tell what it is or the problems it solves?

I scrolled down past the screenshot expecting to read an introduction about it and now we're suddenly talking about StyleKits??? Huh?

E: Quite ironic that the URI path is /intro and the main header "Introducing PaintCode 2", when the page does everything except introduce the product.

[evv]

Oh, really? I don't personally develop iOS apps, but as a technical guy, I understood what this thing is within 10 seconds of the page loading.

It is a technical product with a niche. Maybe they weren't trying to market to you?

[johnward]

My first impression when I got to the page was ok what does this thing do? A simple blurb about what this thing is may have sparked some interest.

[SaladFork]

For those looking:

> PaintCode is a vector drawing app that turns your drawings into Objective-C or C# drawing code in real time.

[jasonlotito]

When I loaded the page, it said this:

"Drawing Tools - Use built-in vector drawing tools to design controls, icons and other graphic elements."

And

"Code Generation - PaintCode instantly generates Objective-C or C# code from your drawings."

Seems obvious to me what it does. I literally have to do nothing besides open my eyes to get that information.

Couple that with the screenshot, and the name, and the fact that the price is presented front and center, I can't help but wonder what information is missing?

[jamra]

Paintcode is like a niche photoshop for iOS. You draw graphics inside the program and it gives you the custom drawing code in objective c.

The use case is if you decide to draw something custom in iOS like a specialized progress bar or a control that you wish to animate as you scroll your finger across the screen, you can make it much easier with this tool.

[iambateman]

I downloaded it and wasn't sure what it was. Still not sure. ;)

[thenomad]

Yep, I had no idea what it was either.

And it looked interesting!

[CatMtKing]

Looks like Flash for iOS apps.

[cwyers]

Looks pretty nifty, but I wish it would mention what it runs on (it looks like OS X only, but would it kill them to just say that?)

[manmal]

No it definitely also runs on iOS, and, interestingly, Xamarin: http://docs.xamarin.com/samples/PaintCode/

I met the authors in person > 1 year ago, when they were thinking about whether Java (Android) code generation would make sense. Would love to learn that they made it happen too.

[general_failure]

Nice, Apple itself is a customer. That's a big thumbs up.

In general, do you have to contact companies and ask them permission before you put them on the customer list?

[brixon]

You hide it in the terms of service and hope that the person at the company buying it bypasses official procurement (i.e. buys the software with corp credit card).

Where I work the procurement organization will required that verbiage is removed.

[kingnothing]

You generally ask the company for permission, and they generally say yes because it's free marketing for them.

[supercoder]

I'd love to actually know how Apple are using this , especially in what apps.

All apps I've seen come from Apple tend to prefer rendering resources using images rather than code, even where you might assume something is done in code to start with, at least on iOS anyway.

[josephschmoe]

I suspect you can just add them so long as you don't have an NDA. It might result in losing them as a customer if they had an expectation of privacy (for example, if it affected one of their acquisitions) - but that's usually done through an NDA.

[jfisk87]

Wow, if you bought version 1 they have no upgrade price :(

[jcomis]

That's the trend lately. App store doesn't support that sort of pricing model.

[ThomPete]

It's free to upgrade if you bought after April

[habosa]

I would KILL for something like this on Android. I know on Android it's not standard to layout UI in code but even just a better Android WYSIWYG layout xml designer would be wonderful. People have proven that it's possible to create gorgeous custom Android apps but it's definitely easier on iOS.

[ww520]

I don't think it is what you think it is. It is not a UI layout design tool. It's a tool to build vector-based control icons and graphic.

[kitschpatrol]

Fantastic progress on a great app!

Seems like a candidate for an Apple acquisition and then integration in Xcode 6. A bit of a stretch, but such a move would align with the trend of baking interface builder, particle effect editors, etc. right into the IDE. (Designer <--> developer workflow considerations aside...)

[NIL8]

Lighten up people. I understand the frustration, but OP is not ALL of those posts you're referring to. He's one guy that posted a link looking for feedback.

OP: I like this and think it has a nice, fresh look to it. Look forward to playing around with it. Thanks.

[thomasjoulin]

Wow, tough crowd! I'd be curious to see what some of the commenters have shipped...

One question for the PaintCode team if they read this: is it possible to have dynamic star shapes? i.e I set it grows with the frame

This update looks awesome, can't wait to use it

[JRobertson]

As someone who has fairly limited exposure to mobile application development I have to ask a basic question, what are the use cases for this tool?

I can tell that it turns vector into code, but why not just include the vector in the app?

[fatboy]

From what I understand, there's a performance gain from doing the drawing directly.

[scrumper]

I just bought PaintCode 1, about a week ago. Sad^h^h^h Happy - free upgrade woo!

[VeryVito]

If you bought it after April 1, the upgrade is free. Email support for info (as seen in the blog post here: http://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/introducing-paintcode-2)

[M4v3R]

Try and contact the authors, it's likely that they will give you at least a better upgrade price for version 2. Some companies also give out upgrades like that for free for people who bought previous version just before the launch.

[spiralganglion]

The animated bubbles make it very hard to read the text they connect to. Very distracting. But otherwise, the look of the site is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm really curious to see all the improvements.

[_zen]

This seems like a cool way to learn Objective-C and iOS development.

Can I make an entire working app using this, or is it only meant for prototyping/mock-ups?

[eddieroger]

PaintCode is meant to replace the need for images by giving you the equivalent code for basic images. Their initial claim to fame with version 1 was being "Retina ready," since the images are drawn in code instead of PNGs. It is a very good way to learn Quartz and CoreGraphics, but not necessarily the best way to learn ObjC.

I used PaintCode in a project I worked once, and it was a lot more work than I wanted for just asking my designer to give me an @2x image. If you work with designers who do vector art already, you're not going to gain much. The StyleKit class is slick, though, so I may revisit this once again.

[mrmondo]

It really annoys me that the website doesn't even say what the product is / who it is intended for.

[mrbill]

What's the difference between this and something like Interface Builder?

[sritch]

Interface builder is pretty limited for customizing design elements.