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Comment by webwielder2 | Hacker News Reader

Since 2012, through the eras of Photoshop, Sketch, InVision, XD, Figma, and whatever else, I've been using Antetype: https://www.antetype.com

For me, it's been a 10x tool since it was always the only piece of software that was designed from the ground up as a UI design tool, rather than being some other kind of app that was pressed into service for UI design. Auto-layout, responsiveness, and flexible components that can be edited per instance without breaking their link to the master component are all features that were present from day one rather than being awkwardly bolted on.

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I've never heard of them but they seem to host a solid set of features, and being around since is 2012 is impressive. I think part of a products success is its availability on different platforms, I wonder how long they have hosted this page for? https://www.antetype.com/antetype-for-windows-web/

> it was always the only piece of software that was designed from the ground up as a UI design tool

You sure about this? What about UXPin? XD? Axure?

Looks great but seems to be competing with Sketch. Figma's appeal was being cross-platform; that's hard to beat.

Not to mention multi-player editing [1]. They nailed the execution and no competitor comes close

[1]: https://www.figma.com/blog/how-figmas-multiplayer-technology...

I took this opportunity to look at Sketch again and I'm shocked they still don't have a desktop version for Windows. They are stubbornly wed to their focus on a "truly native" mac app despite Figma proving over and over that cross-platform is what users actually want and need. Seems like another huge opportunity missed with Figma users scrambling for alternatives.

Better, Figma proves how Web apps can be good enough on the browser by itself, no need for Electron garbage.

Do these tools provide the css/js to the developer so they can implement the style these tools generate?

Genuinely asking: Do developers look at these styles as more than helpful tips? Surely these CSS/JS blobs that Figma outputs have to be correctly and carefully merged into the codebase?

I’ve personally only used the generated code as a starting point or guideline at most, because I usually have an implementation in mind already and it’s more work to reorient myself around the generated code.

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