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Sigh. Opera is the only (mobile) web browser that implements text reflow sensibly, limiting block level elements to screen width. So when you zoom into text th

by vardump 11y ago

Sigh. Opera is the only (mobile) web browser that implements text reflow sensibly, limiting block level elements to screen width. So when you zoom into text that's wider than screen, it always reflows so that just vertical scrolling is required to read it. Other mobile browsers force me to either zoom out making text illegibly small or to continuously scroll horizontally. I so don't want to lose such a useful browser. If Opera is gone, I might have to write my own to do the same. Or more likely to hack Chrome or Firefox to do more sensible layout.

anc84 11y ago
It absolutely baffles me how people manage to use other browsers. Using the internet with Opera Mobile on a tiny screen is wonderful, I much prefer it to dumbed-down mobile/responsive layouts with huge text. If anyone knows of a FLOSS alternative with well-working text-reflow, please shout. Hell, I would pay 10€ for such app.
- chii 11y ago
  the dolphin browser on android used to be able to reflow like opera, but i think since they upgraded to the new chrome engine, it no longer does it properly. Sigh - just never update the opera app and you'd be set!
  - petra 11y ago
    Even without updating, depending on version and on use use ,opera communicated with servers or even gets whole pages. So i'm not sure this strategy would work.
- edent 11y ago
  Quite agree. I've ranted about this before https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/12/do-all-google-employees-have-perfect-eyesight/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/12/do-all-google-employees-hav... Chrome used to have this, but removed it for no good reason. Wish Firefox for Android had this.
  - jakub_g 11y ago
    Thanks for the link, and for the rant. It deserves a separate submission to HN :) I'll let you do that.
    - edent 11y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802584
vezycash 11y ago
Text reflow is something that seems obvious. It's beyond hilarious that other browsers don't implement it. Maybe Steve jobs needs to wake up from the grave to implement sensible browser features. Simple font size option is absent in IE for WP. The contraption they put in its place requires changing the don't size for the entire operating system - just because I want to increase the font size of a single article.
- bla2 11y ago
  The Android browser used to implement it, before Chrome for mobile came along. I think text reflow appeals to a certain kind of power user but is confusing for most users. So it sounds like a good feature for Opera, but not for mainstream browsers.
  - petra 11y ago
    Here's the bug report from firefox about this issue[1].They removed it because it's slow and because they feel that today page authors use large enough text. So maybe the sensible thing to do is to convince the firefox team to enable it as an option. [1]https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298
    - kbrosnan 11y ago
      On Fx this feature is not in the code any more. It would be a large investment of resources to implement it.
      - petra 11y ago
        Are you from the Mozilla team ?
    - cvwright 11y ago
      > They removed it because it's slow and because they feel that today page authors use large enough text. This boggles the mind. Have they never actually used Firefox on a normal-sized phone?
pmontra 11y ago
Yes, text reflow is essential and it's the reason I'm using Opera on my phone and tablet. It's much more important that pinch to zoom: zooming is useless if you clip out half of the text you're reading and you have to start scrolling left and right. I wonder if Opera added it to blink as a patch or if they're working on an upper layer of the software. If it's a patch it would be nice to contribute it to the main repository. BTW, it's at https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink/+/master https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink/+/master
- petra 11y ago
  Does it include the text-reflow code ?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
easytiger 11y ago
> Sigh. Opera is the only (mobile) web browser that implements text reflow sensibly, Completely agreed. It was removed from chrome because they decided websites should change.
- petra 11y ago
  Or because they failed to build a high quality text-reflow like opera's , so they found an excuse ?
- hollerith 11y ago
  >[text reflow] was removed from chrome because they decided websites should change. Could someone explain more fully? I'd like to understand the thinking of those Chrome maintainers who decided to get rid of text reflow.
  - easytiger 11y ago
    The developer's idea was that mobile sites need to be "better" and removing the code reduced clutter. http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/migrating.html#Columns http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/migrating.html#Co... https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62378 https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62378 Combine this and the dreadful random sizing of text in chrome on mobile on certain websites based on some giberish algorithm and I have to seriously question what they are smoking over there. The irony is many of google's own pages don't reflow
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

by vardump 11y ago

anc84 11y ago

It absolutely baffles me how people manage to use other browsers. Using the internet with Opera Mobile on a tiny screen is wonderful, I much prefer it to dumbed-down mobile/responsive layouts with huge text. If anyone knows of a FLOSS alternative with well-working text-reflow, please shout. Hell, I would pay 10€ for such app.

chii 11y ago
the dolphin browser on android used to be able to reflow like opera, but i think since they upgraded to the new chrome engine, it no longer does it properly. Sigh - just never update the opera app and you'd be set!
- petra 11y ago
  Even without updating, depending on version and on use use ,opera communicated with servers or even gets whole pages. So i'm not sure this strategy would work.
edent 11y ago
Quite agree. I've ranted about this before https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/12/do-all-google-employees-have-perfect-eyesight/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/12/do-all-google-employees-hav... Chrome used to have this, but removed it for no good reason. Wish Firefox for Android had this.
- jakub_g 11y ago
  Thanks for the link, and for the rant. It deserves a separate submission to HN :) I'll let you do that.
  - edent 11y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802584

vezycash 11y ago

Text reflow is something that seems obvious. It's beyond hilarious that other browsers don't implement it. Maybe Steve jobs needs to wake up from the grave to implement sensible browser features. Simple font size option is absent in IE for WP. The contraption they put in its place requires changing the don't size for the entire operating system - just because I want to increase the font size of a single article.

bla2 11y ago
The Android browser used to implement it, before Chrome for mobile came along. I think text reflow appeals to a certain kind of power user but is confusing for most users. So it sounds like a good feature for Opera, but not for mainstream browsers.
- petra 11y ago
  Here's the bug report from firefox about this issue[1].They removed it because it's slow and because they feel that today page authors use large enough text. So maybe the sensible thing to do is to convince the firefox team to enable it as an option. [1]https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298
  - kbrosnan 11y ago
    On Fx this feature is not in the code any more. It would be a large investment of resources to implement it.
    - petra 11y ago
      Are you from the Mozilla team ?
  - cvwright 11y ago
    > They removed it because it's slow and because they feel that today page authors use large enough text. This boggles the mind. Have they never actually used Firefox on a normal-sized phone?

pmontra 11y ago

Yes, text reflow is essential and it's the reason I'm using Opera on my phone and tablet. It's much more important that pinch to zoom: zooming is useless if you clip out half of the text you're reading and you have to start scrolling left and right. I wonder if Opera added it to blink as a patch or if they're working on an upper layer of the software. If it's a patch it would be nice to contribute it to the main repository. BTW, it's at https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink/+/master https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/blink/+/master

petra 11y ago
Does it include the text-reflow code ?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

easytiger 11y ago

> Sigh. Opera is the only (mobile) web browser that implements text reflow sensibly, Completely agreed. It was removed from chrome because they decided websites should change.

petra 11y ago
Or because they failed to build a high quality text-reflow like opera's , so they found an excuse ?
hollerith 11y ago
>[text reflow] was removed from chrome because they decided websites should change. Could someone explain more fully? I'd like to understand the thinking of those Chrome maintainers who decided to get rid of text reflow.
- easytiger 11y ago
  The developer's idea was that mobile sites need to be "better" and removing the code reduced clutter. http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/migrating.html#Columns http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/migrating.html#Co... https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62378 https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62378 Combine this and the dreadful random sizing of text in chrome on mobile on certain websites based on some giberish algorithm and I have to seriously question what they are smoking over there. The irony is many of google's own pages don't reflow
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]