4 ms·

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> Please no. IMO this makes most pages unusable on mobile. Most websites, e.g. news websites

by tomp 7y ago

nix0n 7y ago
It seems to work well for motherfuckingwebsite.com (their <head> is almost exactly the "recommended minimum" here). But, I also have no problem with Facebook's mobile site, so maybe I just don't see the same problems as you are seeing.
akersten 7y ago
We must have different devices. IMO most pages are unusable on mobile without this. I wonder if it's the device, website content, or personal preference at play here.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
kalleboo 7y ago
> news websites with long-form articles, shouldn't be using mobile pages / responsive design / zoomed-in layout at all Do you mean you actually prefer having to scroll left/right/left/right/left/right when reading a long article?
- tomp 7y ago
  No, Safari on iOS auto-formats text columns to be screen width when you zoom in (double-tap) on them... but the rest of the website is intact!
  - kalleboo 7y ago
    If I double-tap a column of text, it will zoom in on the part of the page to fit the width of the column on the screen, but if the column is too wide (e.g. a page with just a single 100% width column of text) the text size is still unreadably small. It won't reflow the column to fit the screen. (e.g. try visiting http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/I/ICBM-address.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/I/ICBM-address.html, a page with no viewport directive and not even any page width CSS) The early Android browser used to actually reflow columns to fit on the mobile screen when you zoomed in, but it lost that in the transition to Chrome.
    - tomp 7y ago
      That shows OK on iOS (6 lines of text, vs 2.5 lines on desktop Safari), without even having to double-tap.
      - kalleboo 7y ago
        You must have much better eyes than me (or a bigger iPhone) - at 6 lines the font size is half the size of the text on Hacker News, which is already pushing it for readability, and a third of the default font size for Safari's own "reader mode". The 6 lines comes from iOS Safari defaulting to emulating an approx 800 point wide display (on a 400 point wide display)
        tomp 7y ago
        Indeed, I've 20/20 vision... Setting "Larger Text" in Accessibility Settings unfortunately doesn't increase the rendered text size on that website (it should) but it also doesn't increase it on Twitter's fully mobile website.
    - Mirioron 7y ago
      That page is fine on my fairly old android phone while using brave. It might even be a bit jarring because the text is a bit too big.
Mirioron 7y ago
I agree with this. I often prefer desktop pages because they have more functionality. Even Google's search gives you better search settings in desktop mode compared to mobile (you can't set arbitrary search dates on mobile, you can on desktop, oh and mobile search forces the horror of AMP on you). I also loathe the mobile version of reddit, even more than the new UI. The only pages I prefer in mobile view are ones that get rid of their backgrounds and useless white space on the sides. I use HN in mobile view, but the difference is small enough that it doesn't matter. Even the htmlhead.dev site that is linked works better in desktop mode, because it doesn't force you to scroll the code tags.

by tomp 7y ago

nix0n 7y ago

It seems to work well for motherfuckingwebsite.com (their <head> is almost exactly the "recommended minimum" here). But, I also have no problem with Facebook's mobile site, so maybe I just don't see the same problems as you are seeing.

akersten 7y ago

We must have different devices. IMO most pages are unusable on mobile without this. I wonder if it's the device, website content, or personal preference at play here.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

kalleboo 7y ago

> news websites with long-form articles, shouldn't be using mobile pages / responsive design / zoomed-in layout at all Do you mean you actually prefer having to scroll left/right/left/right/left/right when reading a long article?

tomp 7y ago
No, Safari on iOS auto-formats text columns to be screen width when you zoom in (double-tap) on them... but the rest of the website is intact!
- kalleboo 7y ago
  If I double-tap a column of text, it will zoom in on the part of the page to fit the width of the column on the screen, but if the column is too wide (e.g. a page with just a single 100% width column of text) the text size is still unreadably small. It won't reflow the column to fit the screen. (e.g. try visiting http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/I/ICBM-address.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/I/ICBM-address.html, a page with no viewport directive and not even any page width CSS) The early Android browser used to actually reflow columns to fit on the mobile screen when you zoomed in, but it lost that in the transition to Chrome.
  - tomp 7y ago
    That shows OK on iOS (6 lines of text, vs 2.5 lines on desktop Safari), without even having to double-tap.
    - kalleboo 7y ago
      You must have much better eyes than me (or a bigger iPhone) - at 6 lines the font size is half the size of the text on Hacker News, which is already pushing it for readability, and a third of the default font size for Safari's own "reader mode". The 6 lines comes from iOS Safari defaulting to emulating an approx 800 point wide display (on a 400 point wide display)
      - tomp 7y ago
        Indeed, I've 20/20 vision... Setting "Larger Text" in Accessibility Settings unfortunately doesn't increase the rendered text size on that website (it should) but it also doesn't increase it on Twitter's fully mobile website.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    That page is fine on my fairly old android phone while using brave. It might even be a bit jarring because the text is a bit too big.

Mirioron 7y ago

I agree with this. I often prefer desktop pages because they have more functionality. Even Google's search gives you better search settings in desktop mode compared to mobile (you can't set arbitrary search dates on mobile, you can on desktop, oh and mobile search forces the horror of AMP on you). I also loathe the mobile version of reddit, even more than the new UI. The only pages I prefer in mobile view are ones that get rid of their backgrounds and useless white space on the sides. I use HN in mobile view, but the difference is small enough that it doesn't matter. Even the htmlhead.dev site that is linked works better in desktop mode, because it doesn't force you to scroll the code tags.