[ollerac]

Hi HN,

I made Remake 2 years ago while working on a separate project. [0]

I started that project off with 6 months of research (interviewing potential customers) and 6 months of designing the pages.

I wasn't looking forward to spending another 6-12 months building it all out. I needed a quicker path.

Then the idea came to me: HTML & JSON have very similar structures. They're both ways of storing deeply nested page state. What if I could connect them together and make a really simple way of building web apps?

All I needed to do was convert deeply nested HTML into deeply nested JSON (by tagging elements as being arrays, objects, or keys in those objects) and save the result the current user's account!

Then I could use whatever client-side plugins I wanted (date pickers, file uploaders, inline edit popovers) to edit the page — and sync the resulting JSON data to the backend automatically. It was a really exciting insight for me and would make building a full-stack app as simple as prototyping.

I could even use the data across pages because the JSON structure could, of course, be reused on every page.

That's how I accidentally created a web app framework that lets you make web apps with only HTML templates. I'm really excited about bootstrapping it to profitability over the next year.

[0] RequestCreative.com

[docuru]

I've been following David (hey, it's @hieussr) for sometimes and I think this is a game-changer for many people.

Hackers like us pick up a new language easily. Though I have seen people struggle to learn the necessary languages for building dynamic web (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). I guess that's the reason Tailwinds got popular, because people don't need to learn CSS. Or Flutter/React Native, you write in one language, and able to publish to platforms that require Java and Swift/Object-C.

I was amazed when seeing Remake. It's like a dynamic HTML.

All the best for Remake, David!

[ollerac]

Hi Hieu, thank you! That's a great way to explain it: dynamic HTML. I should use that.

Let me know if you need any help getting set up. I can hop on a video call if you want.

[docuru]

Thanks David. I'll let you know if I need help.

[marmot777]

Do you think this service would be fun for kids 8 or 9 years old who are tech savvy (e.g., can create Minecraft mods)?

[ollerac]

Yes, I've helped tutor kids in web dev & game dev and I'm passionate about making tech easier for them. Remake was made for beginners, so they don't have to learn everything about full-stack web development [0] the first time they want to build a simple web app.

If your kids know enough to build their first website (HTML + CSS), they can also build their first web app with Remake.

I'd recommend checking out the Remake Recipes page [1] to get an idea of just how easy it is to build something that works. All of the editable examples on that page – as long as they use Handlebars.js {{variables}} – are examples of fully-working Remake apps that can be pasted into a Remake project (the app-index.hbs file). After that, they'll be working apps with editable data and user accounts that can be instantly deployed.

However, if you want to start by understanding the vision of Remake and get a broad overview of how it works, I can recommend this video I recently made: "Why Build With Remake" [2]

Also, here are a few of the more difficult parts you might run into:

- Terminal. You will need to run a few commands (remake create & npm run dev) to get the local Remake server running. It sounds like your kids are familiar with the command line, so this probably won't be a problem.

- JSON. In addition to Handlebars.js templating and CSS, your kids will also need to learn a little JSON. It's a pretty simple version of JSON (just objects, arrays, and strings all the way down), but it's still an extra concept to learn.

- Routing. If your web app has multiple pages, each with it's own editable data (i.e. it's not just a one-page website builder) you'll need to turn on Remake's unique IDs. There's good documentation around this [3], but unique IDs is a slightly harder concept to grasp than just HTML ⇄ JSON.

Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way. If a concept is confusing and you send me an email [4], I'll be happy to make a custom tutorial on the subject.

[0] https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap

[1] https://recipes.remaketheweb.com/

[2] https://docs.remaketheweb.com/why-build-with-remake/

[3] https://docs.remaketheweb.com/nested-pages/

[4] https://remaketheweb.com/contact-us/

[marmot777]

Thank you for the description. It sounds like you’ve developed something really cool!

[ollerac]

Thank you! Let me know if you want any help getting set up!