Apple's auto layout and visual format language for JavaScript (2016)

Re:Apple's auto layout and visual format language for JavaSc... by matchbok on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:26AM (#22001404)

Auto layout is not user-friendly enough to make sense on the web. 99% of the time the format is not readable at all. Does anyone honestly think this: [ 'H:|[view1(==view2)]-10-[view2]|' 'V:|[view1,view2]|' ] is readable?

Especially since Apple admitted their mistake and is moving towards SwiftUI.

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Re:Apple's auto layout and visual format language for JavaSc... by jchb on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:42AM (#22002070)

> Does anyone honestly think this: [ 'H:|[view1(==view2)]-10-[view2]|' 'V:|[view1,view2]|' ] is readable?

This is not Auto layout, it is just an alternative string-based API to express constraints in Auto layout. In practice no-one (that I know) uses Visual Format Language, as it is called, but instead sets up constraints in code or in Xcode Interface builder. In Swift code it would look something like this: view1.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view2.leadingAnchor, constant: 10) view2.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view1.bottomAnchor) ...

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Re:Apple's auto layout and visual format language for JavaSc... by crazygringo on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:37AM (#22002018)

I mean, it doesn't look any less readable than CSS.

Maybe CSS is syntactically easier, but the relationships between elements are much more hidden (width: 100%; of what?) so I'd call it a wash.

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Re:Apple's auto layout and visual format language for JavaSc... by Someone1234 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @11:20AM (#22002428)

You don't think CSS grid[0] is more usable than that? Templates are basically a ASCII-visible representation of the layout.

[0] https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/complete-guide-grid/

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