Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introducing docs.microsoft.com

docs.microsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 195 posts

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#121

Post by jakub_g »

sp332 wrote: post #104
nailer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On my 32" 4K display, 70% of the screen is empty. Totally agreed on your other points (particularly about animations on selection) but as the article mentions, eye tracking repeatedly shows people have trouble reading very wide text. Also many people use large monitors to have multiple windows, rather than a single window maximised.

I stopped maximizing my browser window a long time ago, and I only have a 27" monitor. It's just not comfortable for me.

I prefer to have my browser maximized, though it's true too wide text is not easy too read.

I've noticed also that I don't like to read text that starts on the left of the screen.

The solution that works for me is to install a sidebar (on Firefox, AiOS add-on) and if text is too wide or starts too much on the left, I enable and resize sidebar accordingly :)

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#122

Post by ebrewste »

mediumdeviation wrote: post #75
WillKirkby wrote: post #65

Some CSS tweaks that make it slightly more bearable (at least on my 1920px wide display) /* disable social sharing buttons */ .lf-selection-popover,.lf-thread-btn{display:none;} aside#social{display:none;} /* make sidebar thinner and content wider */ @media only screen and (min-width: 1024px){#sidebar{max-width:20%;}} @media only screen and (min-width: 1024px){div#main{max-width:80%;width:auto;margin:0;}} body>div.co…

Are you sure making things wider actually makes it easier to read? Very long lines have make it hard for your eyes to track the start of the next line when you've reached the end of one. This is backed up by solid research, and is the main reason why books, magazines and a lot of websites have the width that they do.

Not all text is about maximum readability at the expense of everything else. If there is a long doc that I need to scan to find out where the useful bit of info is, I want to see more on the screen, even if it goes against some study saying I don't want to. If I'm reading every word of something, maybe the oft referenced studies are valid. In any case, I would certainly prefer that I had the choice to lay it out how I prefer. When making a doc platform like this, it doesn't seem like a ton of work to cater to different opinions, even if they think the customer is wrong.

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#123

Post by WorldMaker »

nacs wrote: post #94
nailer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On my 32" 4K display, 70% of the screen is empty. Totally agreed on your other points (particularly about animations on selection) but as the article mentions, eye tracking repeatedly shows people have trouble reading very wide text. Also many people use large monitors to have multiple windows, rather than a single window maximised.

> eye tracking repeatedly shows people have trouble reading very wide text Yes but to optimize for larger screens, the correct thing to do is to scale everything up (fonts, spacing, etc) in a responsive manner. The amount of text content per line wouldn't change much, it would just fill up the screen better instead of using the same tiny font size you'd use for a 13inch screen @ 1080p on a 32" 4K display.

A better option is to expand to multiple columns, like Newspapers discovered centuries ago.

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#124

Post by Ntrails »

RubyPinch wrote: post #113
asquabventured wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh no. It pops up a quick menu when I select text, like Medium. The problem is that I'm constantly selecting the lines I'm reading. :( I do the same thing when reading text and HATE websites that do this, the solution I've found is to just use uBlock Origin to block annoying web elements like this. You can do the same, just add the following filters: docs.microsoft.com##body > .lf:nth-of-type(7) > .lf-active.lf-sel…

or just docs.microsoft.com#.lf-selection-popover

Is there a generic way to kill the function every website that ever tries to do this to me?

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#125

Post by WorldMaker »

An interesting thing here is the source repositories. Sources are Markdown + YAML frontmatter, as many of the static generators use nowadays, but particularly given the source repositories are hosted on GitHub it's hard not to notice the Jekyll similarities.

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#126

Post by ygra »

WorldMaker wrote: post #123
nacs wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eye tracking repeatedly shows people have trouble reading very wide text Yes but to optimize for larger screens, the correct thing to do is to scale everything up (fonts, spacing, etc) in a responsive manner. The amount of text content per line wouldn't change much, it would just fill up the screen better instead of using the same tiny font size you'd use for a 13inch screen @ 1080p on a 32" 4K display.

A better option is to expand to multiple columns, like Newspapers discovered centuries ago.

That only works when your content fits on a screen because it messes with the scrolling-based nature of the web (or screen content in general – just picture how awkward it is to read an A4-portrait multi-column PDF with fit-to-width on screen).

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#127

Post by alexkavon »

Sarang235 wrote: post #77
glaberficken wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share this "pain". I have the unshakable habit of triple-clicking a paragraph to highlight it to serve as a mark of where I was at when i need to interrupt reading.

I also have the same ehabit. I a glad I am not the only one.

I too am a highlighter.

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#128

Post by abimaelmartell »

sz4kerto wrote: post #3

Oh no. It pops up a quick menu when I select text, like Medium. The problem is that I'm constantly selecting the lines I'm reading. :( Edit: Also, it's extremely narrow. On my 32" 4K display, 70% of the screen is empty. And the font is too think. And stuff keeps moving/jumping when I'm moving the mouse cursor. I want 1998 back.

I really hate the popup thing.

Re: Introducing docs.microsoft.com

#129

Post by Raphmedia »

sz4kerto wrote: post #3

Oh no. It pops up a quick menu when I select text, like Medium. The problem is that I'm constantly selecting the lines I'm reading. :( Edit: Also, it's extremely narrow. On my 32" 4K display, 70% of the screen is empty. And the font is too think. And stuff keeps moving/jumping when I'm moving the mouse cursor. I want 1998 back.

Hold the button while you read, the popup appears on mouse button up and not on the press itself.
Post reply on HN