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98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

jdan.github.io

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Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#131

Post by iforgotpassword »

int_19h wrote: post #91
gsich wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it also required GPU drivers to be installed? I clearly remember the gradient bars.

Win32 GUI wasn't composited until Vista, so it was all GDI 2D primitives rendered directly to the framebuffer. These could be accelerated, but I don't recall any case where some GDI feature would be unavailable if hardware didn't accelerate it - all primitives had software implementations, it just wouldn't be as fast. However, now that I think about it, such gradient bars must have required at least 16-bit color to w…

I think they were disabled for 16 color mode, but on 256 colors they were rendered with dithering, which looked kinda cool. I distinctly remember it from playing rollercoaster tycoon; the game ran in 8bpp mode and used the system open/save dialogs.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#132

Post by jp1016 »

This really brings out the old memories. i have seen this post long back on hn and incorporated your 98css theme on to my side project which generates code screenshots. if you want to check it out go to https://codekeep.io/screenshot and select Windows 98

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#133

Post by iforgotpassword »

wishfish wrote: post #63
laserdancepony wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no dark mode fad in 1998. Different color schemes for visually impaired people existed, but they were most often not very aesthetic.

You are correct. There was no OOTB dark mode in 1998. I remember it well because I wasted some time every now and then trying to make one using the appearance control panel. It was frustrating because I could come very close to a universal dark mode. But I remember certain types of text couldn't have their color independently set. One of them (body text? can't remember) used the same color as title bars. Which would…

Another problem with this was that some software was just broken. For some reason, some devs explicitly set the text color of labels in their software to black instead of the system default color, but left everything else—including the background—to use the system's color. So you end up with black on black for your dark theme.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#134

Post by nielssp »

Tiny nitpick – buttons don't look like that when pressed in Windows 98 (or any version of Windows for that matter).

This is what they're supposed to look like: https://imgur.com/a/iFMJCER (98.css on top, Windows 98 below)

As far as I'm aware, the only buttons that look like that when pressed are the Start menu button and taskbar buttons.

Similarly, buttons are supposed to have a black border in addition to the dotted outline when they're focused.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#135

Post by iforgotpassword »

girvo wrote: post #83
wishfish wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could come close to a proper dark mode, but would fall short. That's with using the color scheme editor in the control panels. I wasted too much time back in '98 trying to make a proper dark mode. Not that we called it that back then. The downfall was a type of text (body text?) which used the same color as the titlebar. It couldn't be independently set. Was a bit frustrating back then. There were the high contra…

Yeah that’s exactly what I remembered: you could make some of the UI dark for sure, but it wasn’t a real dark mode like we expect today; there was still a fair bit of light colouring because it didn’t have enough flexibility?

No, you could do it. There is the limitation GP mentions, but that just meant you were limited in choice. Like you had to pick a text color that would look good on title bars and on window background.

There was however no reason software had to adhere to that. You were free to make your app as colorful as possible. Some devs were nice enough to set the text color to black but leave everything else to use the system theme, so with your dark theme you end up with a nice black on black. I think there were even some Microsoft apps that shipped with windows that had parts that were just "hard-coded" to a light theme.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#136

Post by themoonisachees »

masswerk wrote: post #53
prezjordan wrote: post #25

Hey HN - author here. This was my burnout recovery project in April of 2020. Very much a labor of love and a surprising way to realize I still liked programming. I wrote some scattered thoughts here [0] I also "run" this project quite differently than I usually do - when I receive a pull request instead of merging it I do a quick glance through the user's github to make sure they're not a spammer before giving them _…

> This was my burnout recovery project in April of 2020. OS UI projects are actually good for this. Back in the day, when Classic Mac OS was customizable thanks to its Theme Manager, I went through a few Kaleidoscope schemes for the same reason. Very therapeutical. Well done!

Strongly agree. Theming in general is a fantastic way to do what you're good at (code and design) but have more agency than "write a test and code that passes it". My goto used to be 3DS home screen themes.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#138

Post by amfan »

Pretty cool. I love those old UI's. I once tried rebuilding a functional Windows 3.11 with pure CSS and Vue components. Sadly the used Vue version is kinda outdated by now and I am not sure if I want to spent time updating it all...

https://github.com/sleepybuildings/vuedows

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#139

Post by atoav »

whatwhatwhat_ wrote: post #66
atoav wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider that for some people that terrible operating system might have been the first system the have ever used, maybe as a kid. I (an avid linux user who spends more time in the terminal than on a UI) certainly recall that my first contact with any computer with a keyboard was Windows 95. It was a complete mystery to me. The fascination that unexplainable object had on a 7 year old certainly had an effect on my lif…

Well alright, but I was tech support for many Windows 98 users back in the day and wow did I hate microsoft. It was such a ridiculous mess, like a house of cards. Fix one thing and another broke, cryptic dll packs when installed fixed some problems then needed patching again and again and again. And everyone blamed tech support. We were incompetent, the software came from god. fml I hate that os

Just like for someone working at a 90s McDonalds the old architecture might make them want to vomit while for a kid that grew up during that time that architecture might carry good memories for them.

Both (and more) perspectives can be valid at the same time.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#140

Post by orthoxerox »

nielssp wrote: post #134

Tiny nitpick – buttons don't look like that when pressed in Windows 98 (or any version of Windows for that matter). This is what they're supposed to look like: https://imgur.com/a/iFMJCER (98.css on top, Windows 98 below) As far as I'm aware, the only buttons that look like that when pressed are the Start menu button and taskbar buttons. Similarly, buttons are supposed to have a black border in addition to the dotted…

I think the thick black border marks the "default dialog button", not focus.
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