Proto is a front-end web prototyping tool, combining markup (Jade), script (CoffeeScript), and style (Stylus) into a single page. It creates a set of files each representing one of those three facets of the page, plus files for notes and settings, and serves up their rendered form. Every time the page is loaded, those files are compiled on-the-fly. It's helpful for creating prototypes using CoffeeScript, Jade, and Stylus, without having to set up a build process and environment.
Proto is a command-line tool built in Node, specifically CoffeeScript, and is available through npm.
npm install -g proto-cli
or from source
git clone git://github.com/droptype/proto.git
cd proto
cake build
npm install -g .
cake build will compile src/proto.coffee into lib/proto.js (ignored by git).
proto -i <project_name>
Initializes the project by creating a folder with the specified name and adding five files: markup.jade, script.coffee, style.styl, settings.json, and notes.md.
e.g. proto -i my_project creates a folder called my_project in the current working directory
my_project/
markup.jade - the source for the markup code
script.coffee - the source for the script code
style.styl - the source for the style code
settings.json - settings for the project, specifically extra libraries to include into the page
notes.md - a place for extra notes
To serve the project at localhost:5000:
proto <project_name>
Or specify a port:
proto <project_name> -p 8080
This starts a server that serves the compiled markup, script, and style on the specified port (default 5000). The source files are compiled every time the page is requested.
The source files are compiled and inserted into a full html template. Libraries specified in settings.json, and the CSS compiled from style.styl, are added to the <head> of the page. markup.jade gets compiled to HTML and inserted into the <body>, and script.coffee gets compiled to JavaScript and added to the end of the <body>. (Take a peak at the Proto source for the full template it uses.)
To have additional libraries loaded, add them to the script_libraries or style_libraries. They must be served from somewhere else, like a CDN.
To create a GitHub Gist with the project's contents:
proto -g <project_name>
This will upload the five files in the specified project folder to a private, anonymous Gist. But, this isn't terribly useful besides one-off sharing, so Authenticated Gists are recommended.
To create the Gist under your username, first authenticate with GitHub using:
proto --github <username> <password>
proto --github <username> "<password with spaces>"
This will use the GitHub API to generate an access token that is stored in ~/.proto-cli. Your username and password are never stored.
Now, all Gists you create will be associated with your account. This has several benefits, including making the Proto project a git repo with the remote set to the Gist, so you can keep updating the Proto's Gist.
LiveReload is awesome and works great — in fact it works really well alongside Proto — but doesn't serve the files (and nor should it). Certain JavaScript features require the file to be served instead of loaded using file:// for security reasons. Proto is simpler to use and provides an easy way to initialize the project. It is also intended to be opinionated about the languages and structure it supports, creating simplicity through useful defaults.
Convention. Proto restricts the sources to one file for each type to limit the kinds of things that can be built with it. It's a tool for prototyping relatively small interactions, kind of like a command-line version of Pad Hacker or JSFiddle. Keeping the projects simple also makes it easy for others to understand quickly.
Unlicensed aka Public Domain. See /UNLICENSE for more information.