Utopia, a visual design tool for React, with code as the source of truth
To me this editor gets it right in the sense that we don’t need to get rid of code as the “nocode” movement is trying. Instead we need to make coding more enjoyable and figure out ways to make it more interactive.<p>One specific thing Utopia addresses to me is the need for the code and the actual thing to be treated more as one single interactable component and not two separate things.<p>Instead we're treating <i>the thing</i> as a one-way compile step. There's no way to sync the DevTools in-memory changes we make to the DOM with the actual code.<p>The fact that Utopia allows the two things to be treated as one is a huge step towards making webdev more enjoyable.<p>And they’re following good steps… SwiftUI’s editor is very similar in this regard. Using the code as the main thing but having all kinds of interactable components around it that make writing code simpler with cool visual autocomplete widgets & visual aids.<p>Before with direct DOM changes building something like this was impossible but now with the React paradigm is seems natural to have this sync between code and visuals.<p>Kudos to the team for pulling this off.