[HN Gopher] A subtle layout bug in Google Search: When CJK text-...
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       A subtle layout bug in Google Search: When CJK text-wrapping meets
       float
        
       Author : kang_li
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2024-11-19 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (likang.dev)
 (TXT) w3m dump (likang.dev)
        
       | DimuP wrote:
       | Now i have to learn html again
        
       | JeremyBarbosa wrote:
       | While following the development of the Ladybird browser[0] I
       | found out many of the Web Platform Tests[1] are related to CJK
       | rendering which I found surprising, but seeing this it makes a
       | lot more sense.
       | 
       | [0] https://ladybird.org/
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://wpt.fyi/results/?label=experimental&label=master&ali...
        
         | mananaysiempre wrote:
         | I thought those were on CJK encodings like GB 18030 and Shift-
         | JIS? (Absolutely massive and one of the few places you'll still
         | encounter the insane stateful four-charset monster that is ISO
         | 2022, so deserving of a lot of testing.)
        
         | qingcharles wrote:
         | Just wait until you have to test vertical traditional Mongolian
         | sites:
         | 
         | http://khumuunbichig.montsame.mn/index.php?home
        
       | silvestrov wrote:
       | In short: don't use "float: left/right" for anything besides real
       | floating images.
       | 
       | In this case a "display: flex" on the <a> element would be a much
       | better solution.
        
         | londons_explore wrote:
         | I wonder how long ago this CSS was written...
         | 
         | That particular UI element of google search has been around
         | decades, so might predate css flex...
        
           | ipaddr wrote:
           | 2009 but css flex didn't become popular until 2014+.
        
             | mananaysiempre wrote:
             | In 2009, one still needed to give IE6 serious thought (even
             | if, depending on the use case, the conclusion could already
             | be "nope"). At the time, I had someone telling me that we
             | shouldn't waste our time on supporting mobile. And flexbox
             | was more a curiosity you studied with a hope of using
             | someday than a serious option.
             | 
             | And clearing your floats was part of the absolute basics.
             | Of course, we still forgot to now and then.
        
       | clacker-o-matic wrote:
       | Fascinating article! Weird side note but lovely note callout.
       | I've been trying to get something similar on my site but haven't
       | got it to work right. Is the code for your site open source? I
       | check your GitHub and couldn't find it.
        
       | zelon88 wrote:
       | Not surprising.
       | 
       | The homepage of Google has n-e-v-e-r had an error free console,
       | which I find funny considering it's literally a white page with a
       | logo and a lonely text field, and considering that Google expends
       | so much effort trying to sling their design methodology onto
       | everyone. "Do as I say, not as I do."
        
         | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
         | Well I hope nobody follows Google's design philosophy
         | seriously. They are among the worst in the business.
         | 
         | I've said this for a long time, but the only reason Google
         | search was successful is because they were lucky enough to just
         | have a text area for the search box. If they had tried to do
         | anything else, they would have drowned miserably because their
         | design choices and decisions are so bad.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | In other words: they made good design decisions. If they
           | hadn't made good design decisions, their design would be bad.
        
             | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
             | I think every other design that they have ever done apart
             | from that Google search homepage has been horrible and bad.
             | So that's why they lucked out on that first one.
        
               | jfactorial wrote:
               | I would definitely read an in-depth exploration of
               | Google's design failures from someone informed &
               | opinionated on the topic. I found this looking for such a
               | thing: https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/81965/what-
               | are-the-di...
        
               | ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
               | I've read a bunch of stuff about their design and why
               | it's so bad, including this one. Bottom line is you
               | cannot scientifically manage your way to design. That is
               | why in the future we are going to see designers with
               | aesthetic sense become more and more useful as AI sort of
               | like starts doing everything.
        
         | simlevesque wrote:
         | > The homepage of Google has n-e-v-e-r had an error free
         | console
         | 
         | I just checked, mine is error free.
         | 
         | https://google.com
         | 
         | Are you sure it's not your ad-blocker or another browser
         | extension that causes this for you ?
        
           | Cieric wrote:
           | Opening on Firefox 132.0.2 (all extensions disabled) I get a
           | Content-Security-Policy error, on Edge 131.0.2903.51 (stock)
           | in the issues panel reports 40 Errors and 147 Warnings (With
           | Top Browsers selected). Downloading chrome 131.0.6778.86 just
           | to test they also have a different error "Define @import
           | rules at the top of the stylesheet" which specifies that the
           | @import is ignored due to it not being at the top. They're
           | just hidden in the issues, so same as edge.
           | 
           | This might be more down to the browser you're using and not
           | the extensions present (while extensions like ublock origin
           | do cause more errors.) Not even chrome has 0 problems with
           | their own default home page.
        
       | tapirl wrote:
       | Another problem for years in Chrome is, if a line is wrapped
       | between two Chinese words, Chrome will insert a space between
       | them in rendering. (Firefox doesn't)
        
       | eimrine wrote:
       | Why there are 2 pages #2 on each screenshot?
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-19 23:00 UTC)