[HN Gopher] The Web's Grain (2015)
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The Web's Grain (2015)
Author : MrVandemar
Score : 19 points
Date : 2023-12-04 02:19 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (frankchimero.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (frankchimero.com)
| mock-possum wrote:
| This is a fun article. I wonder what this concept of edgelessness
| 'looks like' when applied to other disciplines like code - it
| almost makes me want to redesign my portfolio site for the
| nteenth time.
| dkarl wrote:
| I'm very poor with CSS, nowhere near good enough to call myself
| "full-stack," but the work I've done is enough to convince me
| that merely _centering_ anything goes against the grain of the
| web.
|
| If the premise of this article is that there is a graceful way to
| make things look good that doesn't required fighting against the
| grain of HTML and CSS, I'd like to hear what professional front-
| end developers think of that.
| shuntress wrote:
| It depends.
|
| Modern CSS (specifically, box) combined with a well thought-out
| document structure can sometimes be extremely simple and work
| perfectly. It can be _very_ satisfying.
|
| But complexity, mistakes, and requirements always quickly add
| up in a way that turns CSS into a complete nightmare.
|
| I like (and mostly agree with) the concept of "edgelessness"
| that the article discusses but that physical fact of the matter
| is that right now, your HTML/CSS will be viewed on a physical
| device of finite proportions. We call it a "Page" for a good
| reason.
| RobertRoberts wrote:
| I think the reason center is so hard for people is that you
| have to first understand "what" you are centering.
|
| > Text, inline box, block box, image/object, etc...
|
| Then, what do you want to center it in relation to?
|
| > Parent box, page, column, div, heading, another object,
| etc...
|
| If you can distill down your requirements, you find there are
| very few ways to center what you want.
|
| > Text = text-align:center;
|
| That is the most simple example, and it will center a lot of
| things. But I think most people when they talk about centering,
| they really mean "I want to take a container and center an
| object inside of it." But without understanding the foundation
| of what your container is and how it's styled, centering it can
| "appear" difficult. (this doesn't even address vertical
| centering conflicts with misconceptions that you have no
| control over the size of the screen you are centering on, so
| what happens when your content is taller/wider than the
| screen?)
|
| How to make this understandable? Learn to center with very,
| very few variables. Then you only have a few ways to make it
| hard. (flex, grid, text/inline, auto margins, transform...
| maybe I forgot one)
|
| [0] https://css-tricks.com/centering-css-complete-guide/
|
| [1] https://css-tricks.com/centering-in-css/
|
| [2] https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/centering-a-website/
|
| [3] https://css-tricks.com/centering-the-newest-coolest-way-
| vs-t...
| dkarl wrote:
| See, my instinct when working with any other technology would
| be that if it's that complicated, then I'm not using it
| right, or I'm not using it for the right thing.
| shuntress wrote:
| There should be a basic simple form of _" Center this thing"_
| and the user shouldn't have to care whether it's an image, a
| header, text, or buttons.
|
| Obviously there are edge cases and complex behavior needs to
| be handled as well. But there should also be sane defaults
| and the computer should figure everything out automatically.
| The default behavior for an image that is larger than the
| screen should be to automatically scale it down while
| maintaining the aspect ratio.
|
| CSS just does not have that level of usability right now.
| Flexbox is a huge step in the right direction but it's still
| not enough.
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(page generated 2023-12-04 23:01 UTC)