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For my day job, I program in python or c++. I'm trying to make a "slick" looking website for my mother.

Problem is, javascript is obscenely difficult for me. Nothing seems to work the way it should. I have tried to use jQuery and mootools and scriptacous and I just keep wanting to hit my head on the desk repeatedly. python/c++ come very naturally to me -- but with any of this javascript nonsense, I'll try to combine a couple of examples in the docs and everything stops working; javascript/css seem so easy to break.

Is there any kind of interface builder out there so that I don't have to touch javascript/css? The website doesn't need any fancy server side actions, she just wants the website to do things like have a slideshow where the pictures fade, the pages slide in and out, etc.

Is there any kind of program online or off that can build this for me? I use linux exclusively -- but would be willing to buy windows and whatever program to get this done. I'm beginning to think my computer is possessed by the devil.

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    +1, but only because it's mothers' day Commented May 10, 2011 at 1:07
  • Ancillary comment: To do the animation and sliding stuff without any JavaScript at all, you could use CSS3 Transitions: w3schools.com/css3/css3_transitions.asp Note that so far only IE doesn't support it BUT it needs prefixes specific to the browser (e.g -moz- for firefox) Commented May 10, 2011 at 1:10
  • consider non-programming ways. For instance some adobe products can deploy a set of photos and wrap them with cool web site browsing capabilities. Ask about them at another stack exchange site. Commented May 10, 2011 at 1:11
  • Most hosting sites have packages that include page or site building tools. People with no coding skills, or reading ability, can set up a slick site- the more you pay for the service, the more you get. Don't be cheap- its your mother. Commented May 10, 2011 at 4:03

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Google Web Toolkit: http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

This lets you write the program in Java and compile down to JavaScript.

There is also WT: http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt

This one lets you write in C++. It's gotten much less press than GWT, but it might also be a good option. That said, I am not sure whether WT does exactly what you want, while I am pretty sure the GWT does (albeit in Java).

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CoffeeScript

It compiles down to JavaScript nicely and is similar in feel to python.

As for UI development something like Sproutcore might be useful.

I don't think the two are very compatible though

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CoffeeScript is great, but it is fundamentally very similar to JavaScript--that is one of its advantages. However, this may be annoying to somebody as frustrated with JavaScript as the asker.
@TikhonJelvis but it's close to python. It has significant whitespace and at first glance I would think its python rather then js. I only recommended it because it's a blend between python and js.
What I meant was that CoffeeScript (as far as I know) maintains some of the features of JavaScript people can be confused by like prototype-based inheritance and function scope (no scope in loops). That said, I could definitely see how this might be more than enough to make a python programmer comfortable.
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Script# converts C# to Javascript.

However, you will still need to know HTML and CSS.

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is the auto generated JS as bad as the auto generated HTML that ASP.NET outputs?
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Is there a reason you feel like you have to do so much from scratch? Why not pay for a nice professional wordpress theme or something. I would think that should have most of what you need, and it would probably look slicker than you could do with a wysiwyg type builder.

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