InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had • Hacker News Board

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#41

Post by Stuk » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:45 PM UTC

snorkel wrote: post #34

Nice, but a few UX nitpicks: * Default to sort by relevence: Put the more relevant matching properties at the top. For example, I type "backg" instead the highest result being the obscure "-webkit-background-composite" ... actually most relevant result "background" which should be the first result instead of the third. * Default results list to condensed format: Instead of showing the full verbose docs for every matc…

Agree with all of these points, especially the condensed-at-first display.

I would also like it if the search box was in the fixed header, so I don't have to scroll back to the top to re-search.

Otherwise nice tool!

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#42

Post by perlgeek » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:46 PM UTC

It would be nice to show something more useful on the front page before the user types anything into the search box. Like an index or a table of contents or so.

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#43

Post by slammdunc23 » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:48 PM UTC

sedev wrote: post #31

Oh look, it's another site that loads nothing with JavaScript off. What is wrong with you? Progressively enhance, or gracefully degrade, or display something other than a completely blank page to non-JavaScript visitors. I harbor many doubts re: your competence in the realm of usability.

The creator of this website, rgarcia, specifically said (when he posted it a couple of days ago) that it was a 24-hour project: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3222253

Cut him some slack! I harbor many doubts re: your competence in the realm of friendliness.

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#44

Post by tlb » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

Nice! It's great that it has detailed version support info, like:

  *Support for multiple, comma-separated, background images was added in Gecko 1.9.2.*

but I wish it showed what fraction of web users that represents. Maybe with a little green/red fuel gauge icon.

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#45

Post by ianmassey » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:53 PM UTC

some things aren't meant for automatic submission as you type. this is a good example. it's annoying.

also - the automatic URL hashing of the query breaks the back button to a ridiculous degree.

cool content, bad design.

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#46

Post by mckoss » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

makmanalp wrote: post #23

Hey, pretty cool but you should have a delay between when the user types something and when the url gets updated and a query gets made. i.e. some sort of definition of "user stopped typing". This improves usability by a ton. Second is, maybe you should have a sidebar on the right that shows you clickable / keyboard navigatable titles of all the search results so I don't have to scroll down browsing.

Agreed. The back button is made almost useless since it is stuffed with each intermediate typed character.

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#47

Post by leeoniya » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:55 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #5

Nice. To avoid the annoying type-to-search feature, just search for "a" and get the whole document at once: http://instacss.com/#a Edit: ugh, that doesn't actually work. It only gives you p-z. Hey instacss! Please provide us with a link to the actual document. Preferably in plain HTML so we can download it. Alternately, anybody care to scrape this thing and post it in full?

guys, just type "." - regex 101

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#48

Post by leeoniya » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 3:56 PM UTC

highace wrote: post #4

It filled my back button up with mess :(

yes, history clutter no good at all :(

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#49

Post by jgroome » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 4:02 PM UTC

btucker wrote: post #38

endtwist wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The percentage of users with Javascript disabled[1] is smaller than the percentage of users using Opera[2]. So there is nothing wrong with choosing to not support 2 out of every 100 users; that's simply a time/cost assessment. What's wrong with you? [1] http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/10/how-many-... [2] http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Which is all well and good unless users don't have a choice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screen_readers

How many web developers looking up CSS reference material are using screen readers though?

It's OK to develop for your target audience, right?

Re: InstaCSS: the CSS docs you always wish you had

#50

Post by tomlin » Mon, Nov 14, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

Love it. One thought - have standardized CSS listed first. I type in "background" and get "-webkit-background-composite" as a first result. I'd probably want to see just "background" come up, followed by declarations less popular. Regardless of this minor issue, I'll be using this regularly. Thanks for this!