Rendr. Rapid HTML Prototyping Online

Rendr is a nifty html rapid prototyping site, with it you can quickly mash out some code and view the changes in real time. The fact that the site runs as smoothly as a desktop application really impresses me. What I mean is that I think it’s a great showcase of the type of functionality we’re starting to see more and more from browser based applications. Whether or not Rendr is particularly useful for anything other than showing off some mad development skills is another story.

I’ve always done all my html/css coding the old-fashioned way, with a text editor and flipping between it and a browser to view my work. So I don’t know if there are applications out there that offer as nice a live preview as Rendr does, again I have to say the fact that I can type code and see my changes on the fly all in one window is pretty darn neat. The only downside is that your code window needs to remain relatively small or you cover the preview. For some reason I like to see more of my code than a few lines at a time. Of course, this is why people either have two monitors or one gigantic monitor.

Rendr is fun to play with, but I can’t see anybody really using it for serious work, although it definitely could handle it.