[HN Gopher] Show HN: Orbit - A CSS radial UI composer framework
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       Show HN: Orbit - A CSS radial UI composer framework
        
       Author : tinchox5
       Score  : 97 points
       Date   : 2024-08-08 09:35 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (zumerlab.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (zumerlab.github.io)
        
       | tinchox5 wrote:
       | Hello HN,
       | 
       | After a long time working on this project, I'm finally ready to
       | share the first public version of Orbit. Although there's still
       | much to be done, I believe this project is ready to move beyond
       | internal testing.
       | 
       | Orbit is a CSS framework that lets you create simple or complex
       | radial designs and UIs, from pie charts to radial menus, and even
       | fully radial pages.
       | 
       | Orbit is designed to be simple, extensible and compatible with
       | other tools and frameworks, using space-related concepts.
       | 
       | To see Orbit in action, check out the landing page, which is
       | built with Orbit. You can also find additional examples here
       | https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/.
       | 
       | I hope you like it and I'd love to hear your thoughts and
       | feedback.
       | 
       | Thanks! Martin
        
         | th3w3bmast3r wrote:
         | It looks really really cool. I'm really loving the "An abstract
         | orbital map" example.
         | 
         | I am curious to know, what prompted you to make this framework?
        
           | tinchox5 wrote:
           | Glad you like it! Several years ago, I wrote my first
           | project, Zircle UI, which mixed zoomable navigation with
           | circular UI. It was not flexible at all, but I enjoyed it and
           | learned a lot from this experience. Then, I decided to split
           | Zircle into two independent parts: Orbit for radial UI (I
           | mean, not constrained to circular shapes), and Zumly, a JS
           | zoomable WIP engine (https://github.com/zumerlab/zumly).
           | While you can use both projects together, they can also be
           | used independently
        
             | th3w3bmast3r wrote:
             | Very cool! Do you have a lot of design experience? The demo
             | and the page was very artistically put together.
        
               | tinchox5 wrote:
               | I must confess that I don't have any experience in
               | graphic design. I actually used existing examples that I
               | thought were well-designed and tried to recreate them
               | using Orbit to see if it was possible.
        
           | leetrout wrote:
           | Where is this example?
        
             | th3w3bmast3r wrote:
             | https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ -> It was
             | here.
        
               | leetrout wrote:
               | Thanks
        
         | spankalee wrote:
         | Very nice use of web components!
         | 
         | I wonder, could you make custom element alternatives to the
         | .bigbang and .gravity-spot classes too? Then they could attach
         | their own resize observers without requiring the developer to
         | do so manually.
        
           | tinchox5 wrote:
           | I was hesitant to develop custom elements at first because I
           | wanted to use just CSS classes and custom variables. However,
           | in certain cases, the developer experience is a mess without
           | using custom elements. About your question, yes, I would make
           | custom element alternatives.
        
       | Art9681 wrote:
       | This is awesome. Well done. I am definitely going to try this out
       | today.
        
       | pipesorter wrote:
       | This is pretty interesting. With other frameworks it never
       | occurred to think of something like this in every day design.
        
       | camillomiller wrote:
       | It's quite broken and not responsive (extends with horizontal
       | scroll past the viewport) on iPhone 15 Pro Max.
        
         | tinchox6 wrote:
         | At this instance Orbit isn't responsive. But it is resizable
         | https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/tools/orbit-resize/
         | 
         | This is a thing I will try to solve in a future. Thanks!
        
           | camillomiller wrote:
           | Nice job, didn't mean to pick!
        
       | thiht wrote:
       | Pretty cool, this is inspiring for landing pages.
       | 
       | Just a heads-up though, the scroll animations activate pretty
       | late. When I scrolled to "components", the first component
       | displayed when it was kinda close too the off screen, which is
       | not very comfortable. The animation should trigger a bit after
       | entering the screen
        
       | wonger_ wrote:
       | This is great. I like the intuitive API. Perfect timing, too -- I
       | needed to make a pie menu today for a virtual whiteboard.
       | Currently thinking about how to incorporate hover effects and
       | selection.
       | 
       | Editing nits:                 https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-do
       | cs/elements/satellite/#:~:text=content.%20If%20other-,contant,-th
       | an%20characters%20is       contant -> content
       | https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/layout/#:~:text=radius%20ra
       | nging%20from-,orbit0,-to%20orbit%2D12       orbit0 -> orbit-0
       | https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/elements/vector/#customizat
       | ion:~:text=size%3A%20Each%20.-,spke,-can%20be%20adjusted
       | spke ->> ??            https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/elem
       | ents/orbit/#:~:text=latter%20one%20is-,abowe,-the%20former.
       | abowe -> above
        
         | tinchox5 wrote:
         | Thank you to detect these typos!! If you want to collaborate
         | please click on Edit page link located at bottom of each page
         | and create a PR. I'll merge ASAP.
        
           | wonger_ wrote:
           | Done :)
           | 
           | Here's the pie menu so far, in case anyone is interested:
           | https://wonger.dev/unlisted/mobile-whiteboard
           | 
           | I had to add a bit of JS/CSS to get the "satellites"
           | hoverable to my liking. The library gives you circle regions
           | and capsules, and you could wrap each in a link or button
           | tag, but that still leaves dead space between the pie slices.
           | I ended up using some trig and pointer handlers. Not sure if
           | I missed part of the docs, or if that's a consideration for
           | future Orbit versions. Still a great library though.
        
             | tinchox5 wrote:
             | Pretty awesome your pie menu!
             | 
             | I believe that "satellites" have pointer-events set to none
             | by default. I would think in some solution, maybe adding a
             | CSS utility to change that in case is needed
             | 
             | I've just merged your PR thank you!!
        
       | hschne wrote:
       | Looks nice!
       | 
       | I'm on an older phone though and your landing Page murders it.
       | Animations stutter and scrolling is pretty janky. Not sure I'd
       | that's an issue with the components or something else?
        
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       (page generated 2024-08-08 23:01 UTC)