Re:Building DSLs in Swift
by hardwaresofton on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @09:09PM
(#18245163)
> Actually you seem to be the one who is guilty of exactly this. I am speaking from experience with CSS _and_ mobile layout systems, and _you_ seem to be the one who is afraid to step out of your CSS comfort zone, and assume that the system which is familiar to you is the best system without trying (or apparently reading up on) the alternatives. Your entire argument against AutoLayout seems to be that other people don't like AutoLayout. If you haven't bothered to learn about the basic concepts, how can you possibly know it's so bad? And frankly the level of projection and vitriol in your comments is disappointing to see on Hacker News.
You've also assumed that because I think CSS is better at solving basic problems these days that I haven't used used AutoLayout. I have used AutoLayout and it wasn't a good experience. I've also used Android's XML soup based layout, neither is fun and they solve problems CSS has already solved. I write both android and ios apps and have moved off native development because of frustrations with the little differences between both of the platforms.
> No, I'm implying that it would have been a bad decision for the mobile UI systems to have been built around CSS before it had decent layout solutions like flex-box and grid.
Yeah except like I've said roughly 5 times now, they didn't have to take ALL of CSS. They could have built extensions to it, possibly benefiting the whole ecosystem, or anyone else -- at the very least, leverage what CSS has already solved well and then build upon it.
> It's not relevant. AutoLayout is an evolution of the iOS UI system, so comparing the origin of AutoLayout to the origin of FlexBox is orthogonal to my point.
Of course it isn't relevant -- because you don't have a choice. I was comparing the origin and evolution of AutoLayout to the origin and evolution of CSS -- CSS might move slow, but it's pushed forward by entities that do exploratory work, contribute back and improve things for everyone.
AutoLayout does not improve on the basics that CSS offers -- targeting and styling an element is basically the simplest it gets, and it's straight-forward to understand. CSS has iteratively gotten better over the years, steered by a bunch of groups, and is sufficiently extensible to contain AutoLayout's functionality. A world where CSS could be worse than AutoLayout basically doesn't exist, because you could literally make a CSS, strip whatever you don't like out, and implement AutoLayout.
You've also assumed that because I think CSS is better at solving basic problems these days that I haven't used used AutoLayout. I have used AutoLayout and it wasn't a good experience. I've also used Android's XML soup based layout, neither is fun and they solve problems CSS has already solved. I write both android and ios apps and have moved off native development because of frustrations with the little differences between both of the platforms.
> No, I'm implying that it would have been a bad decision for the mobile UI systems to have been built around CSS before it had decent layout solutions like flex-box and grid.
Yeah except like I've said roughly 5 times now, they didn't have to take ALL of CSS. They could have built extensions to it, possibly benefiting the whole ecosystem, or anyone else -- at the very least, leverage what CSS has already solved well and then build upon it.
> It's not relevant. AutoLayout is an evolution of the iOS UI system, so comparing the origin of AutoLayout to the origin of FlexBox is orthogonal to my point.
Of course it isn't relevant -- because you don't have a choice. I was comparing the origin and evolution of AutoLayout to the origin and evolution of CSS -- CSS might move slow, but it's pushed forward by entities that do exploratory work, contribute back and improve things for everyone.
AutoLayout does not improve on the basics that CSS offers -- targeting and styling an element is basically the simplest it gets, and it's straight-forward to understand. CSS has iteratively gotten better over the years, steered by a bunch of groups, and is sufficiently extensible to contain AutoLayout's functionality. A world where CSS could be worse than AutoLayout basically doesn't exist, because you could literally make a CSS, strip whatever you don't like out, and implement AutoLayout.