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Software for OS X

Contrepoint 1.0

Contrepoint is an application for OS X, written in Ruby, which allows you to create websites from a simple collection of folders with text files and images in them. So you can go from a set of text files and jpegs to this webpage at the click of a button.

This allows you to create and edit a website without editing HTML at all (given the templates). Or allow others to edit a website without actually touching the source HTML and CSS.

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Kenny Grant

What you can do with it

For Beginners

  • Create a well structured website with no HTML
  • Generate lists of items (for a weblog or elsewhere)
  • Create links to other pages, lists and tables with no HTML
  • Structure your website by dragging folders around, and links update automatically
  • Generate picture galleries with thumbnails and images resized for the web
  • Generate a weblog or other dynamic content locally for putting on a static webserver

Advanced use

  • Not just limited to blogs or online galleries
  • Enter snippets of HTML within text files for extra control
  • Create items (a footer or header for example) which are used throughout the site
  • Easily use different templates for each section of the site
  • Create complex sites and templates which others can edit with no knowledge of the site structure
  • Entirely redesign a site without touching the content

What it won't do

  • Run on a web server as a server-side script
  • Upload your website to an ISP account (you need an FTP program for this)

There are plenty of solutions which allow you to create a website dynamically from simple content on a web server, but this tool allows you to edit the website offline on your mac. When you're ready, you can upload the website to a web server, without having to run any scripts on the server at all (which normally costs more money in hosting fees).

Because of the strict separation between content and structural markup that Contrepoint enforces, you can be confident that the style of your site is easy to change. And if you ever need the content of your website in another form, it's all there as text and images on your hard disk, not in a database. This entire site was created with Contrepoint, as was Create Architectural Design.

Kenny Grant

Download

You can download the Contrepoint Application here or by clicking on the link in the sidebar. For details of what's inside the application package, see below.
Kenny Grant

How does it work?

Contrepoint is a set of Ruby scripts packaged as a cocoa application. This allows you to drag website folders onto the application icon to build or rebuild a website. If you look inside the package at Contents/Resources/Contrepoint app/ you can see the source files. Contrepoint requires Ruby 1.8 - this is packaged within the application though, so you don't have to install it to run the application. If you already have Ruby 1.8, you can run the scripts without the application.

Kenny Grant

Version History

Contrepoint 1.0.1

  • Site build now asynchronous and provides visual feedback
Kenny Grant