...much less actually learn a language.
Ever heard of English?
In all seriousness, I believe I know where you're coming from and I think you've hit on something that would be of value to many people. However, the way you've described it so far is not particularly useful or enticing. There are quite a number of WYSIWYG web apps out there that do exactly what you've mentioned. Once again:
I was thinking the other day, and I was wondering about those poor souls trying to use WYSIWYG html editors. Even if it's simplified and bare-bones, the app. can be confusing to work with, and make layouts the way you want. It would be cool if someone developped a screen shot style html etc. extractor (to extract code from other web pages) and made it availible as an add-on or small app.
I currently use BBEdit and GoLive for website development. Regardless of what you might think of GoLive, e.g. it can be a confusing mess (and I feel this way even though I use and rely on it daily), a user can create a new Site in GoLive directly from an existing URL. GoLive will download all the site assets required and open it up for editing. I can download, directly through the app, an entire heirarchy of website files and assets, simply by answering a series of questions. I don't know how much easier it can get.
I get the feeling that you've had a brainstorm about the current usability of availble WYSIWYG tools, and that you believe there might be a better way to accomplish it. That's wonderful! If this is the case, then the key is defining exactly what it is that your "ideal" app would do, and exactly what functionality is required to accomplish what you envision.
One of the reasons why I love programming is because I get to define exactly how an application functions, and I'm (personally) adamant about making sure that what I've created completely serves the person who sits at a computer trying to accomplish specific tasks.
Brainstorms are great, but until you can
literally detail how the user would interact with your app, it's just a vague pipe-dream.
Best,
Logicat
