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I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

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Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#21

Post by gbrindisi »

chrismorgan wrote: post #16
gbrindisi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply put: I want to know if what I am writing is being read and how is propagated.

Yeah, but what will you change based on what you discover? That’s the essence of what tweetle_beetle is asking and why many end up deciding that they don’t actually need analytics—because they’re not going to change anything based on what they observe.

like it or not, analytics can give you actionable information to drive some seo improvements in how your content is displayed and consumed

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#22

Post by zelphirkalt »

jakub_g wrote: post #19
chrismorgan wrote: post #15

I strongly advise against this style of justification: text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-character; Justification is typically only particularly suitable for fairly narrow columns, combined with hyphenation. And inter-character justification is… hazardous, only to be entered into with substantial caution. Sometimes layouts and what occurs to the inline-end [right] of the layout can also justify justification B…

+1. Justification is something that you feel like you should do to have "nice layout" but it hinders readability according to many studies. Check BBC, NYTimes, The Guardian, Reuters, AP News, Wikipedia, HN - none of them uses text justification.

Huh? Can you link such a study?

I always found it easier to read justified text. Already the annoyance, that the text is not ending at the same "column" on the screen on the right side of the text is distracting. It also looks like no one really took care and simply dumped a ton of words, when it is left aligned, at least to me.

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#23

Post by zelphirkalt »

gbrindisi wrote: post #14
chrismorgan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I had to capitulate for google analytics. Ask yourself how much you actually need analytics. I found I seldom looked at it. I myself replaced Google Analytics with self-hosted Matomo for a while, but then I just dropped it altogether because I simply don’t need it. Now I do have server logs that I can look at, and from time to time I do (and they reveal things like Atom feeds consume the substantial majority of the…

I just want to know if what I write is being read and how is propagated/shared

If effort or time was not a limitation, you could opt for a tool that you can self host, instead of increasing Google's data.

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#24

Post by notRobot »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #22
jakub_g wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1. Justification is something that you feel like you should do to have "nice layout" but it hinders readability according to many studies. Check BBC, NYTimes, The Guardian, Reuters, AP News, Wikipedia, HN - none of them uses text justification.

Huh? Can you link such a study? I always found it easier to read justified text. Already the annoyance, that the text is not ending at the same "column" on the screen on the right side of the text is distracting. It also looks like no one really took care and simply dumped a ton of words, when it is left aligned, at least to me.

https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/93442

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#25

Post by Dionakra »

muspimerol wrote: post #18
Dionakra wrote: post #7

I did almost the same last weekend. I wanted to start a blog[1] but all options seemed too much for a simple purpose that is a blog. After researching about VuePress, Sapper, Next.js, Gatsby and so on, I finally decided that it wouldn't have any kind of JavaScript. I was tempted to create yet another static site generator, but I am sticking to the old HTML + CSS duo (and, regarding CSS, classless CSS) for my blog. Ye…

For ease of maintenance and portability I think markdown is really the king of formats for blog content. Are you writing the posts in HTML? Why are you intermittently using for paragraphs and to wrap other elements?

Yep, I am writing the posts in HTML. The reason to avoid Markdown (which I love) and other things is to avoid any kind of building tools. I tried to install Gatsby on a Windows machine and I had several errors. I wanted to remove any dependency on external software. I wanted it to be modifiable with just a text editor and nothing else.

Regarding the use of is because the

tag with the chosen CSS leaves too much space after tags, while doesn't, and as I wanted to just use HTML tags and not create my own version of the CSS, I found the easiest way to achieve that.

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#27

Post by a20201109 »

notRobot wrote: post #24
zelphirkalt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Can you link such a study? I always found it easier to read justified text. Already the annoyance, that the text is not ending at the same "column" on the screen on the right side of the text is distracting. It also looks like no one really took care and simply dumped a ton of words, when it is left aligned, at least to me.

https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/93442

That link mentions no such studies. It has opinions from typographers, but no data on how text justification affects readability.

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#28

Post by jakub_g »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #22
jakub_g wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1. Justification is something that you feel like you should do to have "nice layout" but it hinders readability according to many studies. Check BBC, NYTimes, The Guardian, Reuters, AP News, Wikipedia, HN - none of them uses text justification.

Huh? Can you link such a study? I always found it easier to read justified text. Already the annoyance, that the text is not ending at the same "column" on the screen on the right side of the text is distracting. It also looks like no one really took care and simply dumped a ton of words, when it is left aligned, at least to me.

In print, you have fixed, known in advance width; hyphenation; sophisticated multipass algorithms; manual review of the typesetter. Justification can make sense.

On the web, with responsive design, container width is dynamic. Algorithms are less sophisticated. Hyphenation is kinda supported but only for few languages and few websites use it (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/hyphens) although Eric Meyer advises to turn it on on mobile (http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2012/12/10/should-you-hyph...).

Quickly googling around:

- dyslexic people have troubles with "white rivers"

- (1986) speed is lower when reading justified text https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001872088602800...

- (2019) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722069/

> Guidelines for text readability and empirical evidence from the present study:

"Guideline: Use left-justified text with ragged right edge: Empirical support: yes"

> (...)Eye movements during reading are characterized by a sequence of jerky movements (saccades) followed by moments in which the eyes are held relatively still (fixations) on a target - typically a word - to allow its decoding and processing.

> (...)The use of Left-Aligned Text facilitates reading by reducing the number of fixations

Edit:

See also UK gov guidelines:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-communi...

- Align text left for maximum legibility. - Avoid right aligning or justifying text. - Avoid using hyphens to split words between lines.

Re: I wrote JavaScript to avoid JavaScript

#30

Post by a20201109 »

jakub_g wrote: post #28
zelphirkalt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Can you link such a study? I always found it easier to read justified text. Already the annoyance, that the text is not ending at the same "column" on the screen on the right side of the text is distracting. It also looks like no one really took care and simply dumped a ton of words, when it is left aligned, at least to me.

In print, you have fixed, known in advance width; hyphenation; sophisticated multipass algorithms; manual review of the typesetter. Justification can make sense. On the web, with responsive design, container width is dynamic. Algorithms are less sophisticated. Hyphenation is kinda supported but only for few languages and few websites use it ( https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/hyphens ) although Eric Me…

Thank you! In the 2019 readability study, the things that did not affect readability (null effects) are at least as interesting as things that did. Organizing Table 4 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722069/ by reported empirical support:

Null effect:

- Ensure high luminance contrast between text and background

- Avoid using italics

- Use bolding to highlight

- Avoid underlining large blocks of text

- Use a plain, evenly spaced sans serif font

Partial:

- Avoid formatting texts in large-width columns

Yes:

- Limit the amount of content on a page

- Use a minimum of text size 12 pt or 14 pt

- Keep the between-line spacing of 1.5 point

- Use section headings

- Use left-justified text with ragged right edge

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