Totally agreed.
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Macaw accomplished quite a lot in the 1 year 9 months 27 days (March 31, 2014 â January 26, 2016), that they operated though to be fair. But it was originally two guys and crowd funded -vs- Norm being 1 person. But they had their issues, thatâs for sure. Scarlet (which they already had) however, would have been a very impressive next step in the progression of capabilities had it been realized. But they took the money and merged, who can blame them.
@TYancy, in case you missed it here is a little peak at whatâs on the horizon for Blocs 2017: Blog Post , but perhaps not fast enough or the direction of your needs or liking?
In reading that I am again kind of bummed being reminded Blocs went from Open Standards to Native App and what that could have meant otherwise. By contrast Macaw was actually moving the other way, going from Native to Open Standards with Scarlet. 
Interesting times, no doubt more options will continue to emerge in 2017, both cloud based and desktop.
Indeed enjoy your holidays @Norm.
@Blocs_User the move to make Blocs more native only effects how you interact with Blocs i.e. Itâs user interface. There are huge advantages in going native in this respect as noted in the post. For power users who want more control of code this is good news trust me, it wonât effect how sites work or are created, so donât be too bummed.
@TYancy Always consider, Blocs is a tool that is focused on making things easier, itâs not a tool that is designed to be a developers dream tool and never will be. Itâs a tool designed to open doors for those who donât have the knowledge, that said I will always try to add more power but will never compramise on simplicity and keeping the work space clear.
The appeal of Blocs is the ease of use, this comes from lots of compromises. I appreciate there is a market for developers who want power tools but thatâs not our goal with Blocs.
This is just my opinion but adding every feature under the sun to make a more powerful app isnât what makes a great app, as Miles Davis once said, itâs not the notes you play, but the notes you donât play 
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Well said.
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I will wait and see what youâre able to accomplish @norm and what comes of it over the next few versions as hinted upon in that Blog post. 
I can honestly say however that native is less important now days, and open standards can open up so many things from a âdevelopmentâ standpoint. I would agree in the utter importance of native perhaps a number of years ago, but there are many widely used apps built upon open standards now days that affect little concerning user experience, both from a UI/UX and overall performance standpoint. But like I previously stated above, itâs your vision and roadmap, so keep up the good work. I am looking forward to see how things progress and advance.
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@TYancy, have you ever seen or tried Xpressive ( $19 via Mac App store ) ? I actually bought it on New Years Eve (impressive night huh), to review itâs GUI.
It actually reminds me of Pinegrow in that it works with native source files and allows for full GUI manipulation, however itâs GUI in certain areas is more straight forward and intuitive than that of Pinegrow. It also allows for drag and drop positioning, has a nice animation feature, etc. For the cost it may be worth checking out to see if it would benefit you in anyway as part of your toolset.
It certainly is more towards Pinegrow than Blocs however. You need to have knowledge of HTML/CSS/JS to fully leverage it like Pinegrow. But just the same as Pinegrow it offers the opportunity to help learn these things as well.
It has not been updated since mid 2015, and perhaps wont be. But given itâs use of HTML5, CSS3, as well as the full ability to work with any framework as raw native sources, itâs not really limited in any way even with it not being updated. I had known about it for more than a year and finally got around to checking it out. Much like Pinegrow (or any app) you have to take the time to understand the UI and thought process of the app, but once you comprehend it you may find it useful as tool in your toolbox.
Pinegrow version 3, UI is getting an update and rethinking / facelift, so we will see what that yields as well concerning usability and feature improvements. If you do happen to check out Xpressive, I would be curious what you think.
Likewise very excited to see Blocs continue to advance as well this year.
Agreed: