Re:It’s time to kill the web app
by dispo001 on Sunday September 24, 2017 @01:40AM
(#15323494)
You would think text documents work wonderfully but weirdest parts of html [to me] are...
1) the rendering of things outside the viewport. The way wrapping of divs and lines works it seems impossible to make it render the way pdf did from day 1(?) I don't even know if there is a maximum length for pdf but in html you really should try to stay under 20 000 lines. I know, it seems like I'm splitting hairs here, but before the early 90's you could easily scroll though the entire memory of the system as if it was a single document. The amount of code was kind of a lot smaller than the infinite scroll web page requesting pre-cut chunks of xml or json where you get to manually measure the size of elements then get to do crazy calculations with the scroll offset if a new element needs to be inserted above the stuff the user is looking at.
And 2) not having a nice way of doing a reference section summarizing the stuff linked in a text kind of ruins the joy of having links in the text. One ends up building a kind of disposable experience if the text is long enough.
Combined, it's like having a pile of pages that are all the entry point. This is lovely for short reads but far from what books use to be.
I suppose the ultimate creation is one such article that promises everyone a fire breathing pony with laser eyes in the soon to follow up.
When you write one, be sure to rage at the thing everyone loves and to suggest abolishing it - to be replaced by that pony you will get in the next episode!
I for one am all ready to be disappointed by this holy grail of subscribe baiting.
1) the rendering of things outside the viewport. The way wrapping of divs and lines works it seems impossible to make it render the way pdf did from day 1(?) I don't even know if there is a maximum length for pdf but in html you really should try to stay under 20 000 lines. I know, it seems like I'm splitting hairs here, but before the early 90's you could easily scroll though the entire memory of the system as if it was a single document. The amount of code was kind of a lot smaller than the infinite scroll web page requesting pre-cut chunks of xml or json where you get to manually measure the size of elements then get to do crazy calculations with the scroll offset if a new element needs to be inserted above the stuff the user is looking at.
And 2) not having a nice way of doing a reference section summarizing the stuff linked in a text kind of ruins the joy of having links in the text. One ends up building a kind of disposable experience if the text is long enough.
Combined, it's like having a pile of pages that are all the entry point. This is lovely for short reads but far from what books use to be.
I suppose the ultimate creation is one such article that promises everyone a fire breathing pony with laser eyes in the soon to follow up.
When you write one, be sure to rage at the thing everyone loves and to suggest abolishing it - to be replaced by that pony you will get in the next episode!
I for one am all ready to be disappointed by this holy grail of subscribe baiting.