Contrepoint - A Mac OS X website builder written in Ruby

This looks like an interesting tool… The company’s website was developed with Contrepoint, and from what I could tell the software is freeware. With all the hoopla over Google’s Page Creator and Apple’s iWeb, it’s worth taking a look at another quick site developer like this one. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised! (The developer is also working on a Mac OS X Mail package, which, I pray, will provide a decent alternative to Apple’s Mail once he gets IMAP support added.)

Update 12/7/06. OK… I get it now. Contrepoint is more a proof-of-concept application than something appropriate for most publishers. Although it really does take a paradigm-shift away from database-driven websites and back to simple static text files. With Contrepoint, you just organize directories that are named to reflect the sections of your site, and you put simple text files (HTML not necessary) in them to contain your content. You can also put images and special text files that can act as captions. Contrepoint supports a simple markup that lets you set up tables and lists, and the application itself takes care of converting everything to HTML when you’re ready. It comes with several example websites and everything you need to learn how to build one of your own.

Contrepoint is built with Ruby, and its approach to website building reminds me a lot of the Rails way of building database-driven content. Not something I’d use myself, but very interesting all the same. Kudos to the developer!

Version as tested: 1.0.2.