Fog Creek releases WebPutty

Fog Creek releases WebPutty(webputty.net)

59 points by mgorsuch 14 years ago | 39 comments

dmbass 14 years ago |

Can someone explain why they would choose a name like Putty which is already a well established and completely different software?

zavulon 14 years ago | |

I got really confused by that too. I think 99% of target audience are going to think "oh, it's a web-based terminal app". They should change the name before it's too late.

CWIZO 14 years ago | | |

I was disappointed to find out that it was not, in fact, a web putty ...

mtogo 14 years ago | | |

That was actually my first thought when i saw spolsky's tweet.

Meai 14 years ago | |

I almost didn't click on this because of the name. I'm glad I did it anyway, I will definitely use this in the future.

almightygod 14 years ago | | |

agreed - i thought it was a real "web" putty and thought of all the reasons why i wouldn't use it

sorensen 14 years ago | |

Isn't that the logo for Notepad++?

tghw 14 years ago | | |

Haha, we were wondering how long it would take people to notice. Yeah, it is. We picked it before realizing it, and didn't know until we were getting permission for it. We'll probably change it soon, but since it plays a pretty minor role on the site, we decided to leave it until we could get some more time to search for a replacement.

tghw 14 years ago | |

Mostly because good names are hard to come by, and WebPutty (if you unstick your brain from PuTTY) is a pretty decent name.

We would have loved to incorporate transmogrifier into the name, but that's hard to type and spell.

smackfu 14 years ago | |

I don't even understand why it's named that, and it's not like they even bought the webputty.com domain.

RocknRolla 14 years ago |

Maybe I'm not understanding this completely (and that's entirely possible!) but why use 3rd party web servers? I like the idea but it just seems like it'd be easier as a browser addon. With the browser addon:

||Step 1 > Visit Url or open file ||Step 2 > Click the addon button ||Step 3 > Addon opens double pane and clears any current CSS ||Step 4 > Edit CSS and refresh

There's probably already an addon like this. Admittedly I've never looked past Firebug.

tghw 14 years ago | |

We give you SCSS/Compass and we host it for you. It's all about reducing friction.

nmb 14 years ago |

the favicon (http://www.webputty.net/favicon.ico) looks awfully similar to the notepad++ logo: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

ibejoeb 14 years ago | |

The graphic is by Hayes Roberts [1], licensed for use in WebPutty [2].

[1] http://www.bluebison.net/content/?p=786 [2] http://www.webputty.net/credits

smackfu 14 years ago | | |

It's still odd. This whole thing seems a bit half baked.

nmb 14 years ago | | |

Ah, should have looked into that myself. Thanks.

funkah 14 years ago | |

Wow.

vailripper 14 years ago |

this is a pretty awesome idea. Maybe I'm just inefficient, but I always find myself spending a stunning amount of time tweaking CSS, refreshing the page, ad nauseum. The only downside I see is that in order to modify your site CSS, it seems you would have to be running this tool, and you wouldn't be able to use your IDE of choice.

timmaah 14 years ago | |

And you have to rely on a third party for hosting your css.

alecperkins 14 years ago | |

Does exactly what it sounds like, and lets you edit the source however you want: http://livereload.com/

vailripper 14 years ago | | |

Is there anything like this for PC?

davesims 14 years ago |

It's what you always wished Firebug's css view would actually do.

Fzznik 14 years ago | |

Try the "Edit CSS" feature in the Web Developer plugin. It works surprisingly well for most things, in the way you are probably wishing for.

jedcn 14 years ago |

Bug Report? Mark Pilgrim's named is spelled incorrectly on this page: http://www.webputty.net/credits.

tghw 14 years ago | |

Have a fix in for the next deploy.

pkamb 14 years ago |

Why is the favicon the Notepad++ lizard?

guywithabike 14 years ago | |

They have permission to use it. They're looking for a new one now.

rksprst 14 years ago |

Somewhat similar functionality to http://www.stiqr.com/ Although for stiqr would work even if you don't know HTML/CSS.

Wish the stiqr guys had a bit more exposure. Awesome product.

sfk 14 years ago |

Could someone explain why most recent websites look as if the members of the target audience are five-year old children? This is not a troll - I'm honestly wondering if anyone actually likes such a "design".

blhack 14 years ago | |

Because childrens' toys are highly functional. You've got building blocks with letters on them. They do exactly 1 thing, and they do that 1 thing very, very, very well.

Or maybe you have a board with some buttons on it. The one with a picture of a cow makes a cow noise. The pig makes a pig noise, etc.

Turns out this is also really good design practice. For a long time, when the web was new, having lots of "neat stuff" meant that you knew how to make neat stuff, which meant that you were "professional".

As this "neat stuff" became more accessible, it started having the opposite affect.

The transition you've seen happen in web is the same one that you saw happen in print. Things start off "fancy", but as "fancy" becomes easily attainable, it starts to look cheap.

You may be interested in this article: http://lesswrong.com/lw/154/why_real_men_wear_pink/

"Why Real Men Wear Pink"

guywithabike 14 years ago | |

Can you explain why you think the design targets "five-year old children"? All you did was make a reductive, flippant accusation without backing it up at all.

nl 14 years ago | | |

I don't think it really needs explanation - using the term "fisher price style" is quite a common way of describing that style.

For example:

Each Fisher Price style button leading through to a small nugget of information that users can consume very quickly and move on or should we continue designing pages that are more traditional in their layout (more text+images)?

http://www.welcomebrand.co.uk/blog/2010/09/10/the-dumbening-...

Personally, I don't think it's a bad thing at all. Obviously the grandparent disagrees, but the question is quite valid.

SamReidHughes 14 years ago | | |

What do you expect, some kind of point-by-pint list of how the design targets children? Why don't you think of one yourself?

Can't see how it could be regarded in such a light? Too bad.

jrockway 14 years ago | |

Just to spite you. The world is out to get you specifically, and this is the first phase of that operation.

scotto 14 years ago |

I really like this idea and design. In particular the "Tour" is great! I think I will get real use from this service.

swah 14 years ago | |

I wonder if they used that tour making library posted here the other day...

tghw 14 years ago | | |

Yup, we used the Guiders library posted by the Optimizely guys: https://github.com/jeff-optimizely/Guiders-JS