4 ms·

Oh dang, yeah. An extension that makes the whole web look and work like the default Mediawiki skin would be glorious. And _fast_. I miss windows having borders

Oh dang, yeah. An extension that makes the whole web look and work like the default Mediawiki skin would be glorious. And _fast_. I miss windows having borders. Just dug up a registry hack (obscene that such a thing was needed) to force win10 to have window borders again, because I keep ending up in situations where I honestly couldn't tell where one ends and the other begins. They spent decades researching and building interfaces with visual cues, and we spent decades tuning our reflexes to them. Then some whim of fashion decided that hiding all those cues was "smoother", and I want to choke someone.

Dah00n 5y ago
>An extension But... that's the opposite of what was asked for. Adding an extension adds more of the bad. A patch for Firefox reader mode would be better in my opinion since the web itself won't become better.
GhettoComputers 5y ago
I just used win+ arrow keys, never missed the resizing.
- amatecha 5y ago
  Whoa, I had no clue about these key-combos. So handy! Thanks!! For anyone curious, MS has a useful summary of how this works here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-windows-885a9b1e-a983-a3b1-16cd-c531795e6241 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-window...
  - GhettoComputers 5y ago
    No problem, I did it by accident, and you can also drag the windows to the corners and overshoot to have them, top is full, left and right is half that side, the link you posted mentions that, I am actually surprised you never accidentally discovered either. I have that in KDE as well.
    - wruza 5y ago
      Also, double-clicking on a top or a bottom edge will v-maximize window, or resizing a window vertically and overshooting at the top or at the bottom of the screen.
  - jasonkester 5y ago
    Thanks for giving me a name for this that I can search for to turn it off. There’s nothing more annoying in my day than when I drag a window from one monitor to the other, then the windows cuts it in half and sticks it to the side of my screen. I never knew what windows called it before, so there was no way to get rid of it in settings.
    - naikrovek 5y ago
      > I never knew what windows called it before, so there was no way to get rid of it in settings. The settings pages aren't that big. You could read through it all in 5 minutes. Did you look? I mean sometimes things are annoying and you just can't be bothered to dig around to find the thing that turns it off, but at least in this case, it's easy: Settings > System > Multitasking > Snap windows
      - jasonkester 5y ago
        You can't possibly be serious. Out of curiosity, I just opened Windows 10 Settings. I see sixteen top level options. I opened the first one and it had 16 submenus, the first of which is two pages tall and has 8 additional settings links from it. Of course, Control Panel is also a place it could be hiding, and it's even bigger. So, no. One does not simply click on every single thing in settings hoping to find the annoying thing that Windows is doing today that you don't have a name for. Typing "Snap Window" into search narrows it down to three, which makes it possible to accomplish. Thanks again to the GP for enabling that.
        naikrovek 5y ago
        I am serious. counting pages won't change how long it takes to actually understand where things are. you don't have to read every last word... you are just trying to get a vague feel for what is in there. takes 5 minutes, max.
shoto_io 5y ago
Why not use Reader Mode? I love it and use it as often as I can
- framecowbird 5y ago
  I love reader mode! It's saved the internet for me
- HellsMaddy 5y ago
  Reader mode is nice when it works, but since it’s hueristics-based I find it often either misses important content like images and code blocks that should be included with the article, or includes text that shouldn’t be there. Even if it selects all the right elements, syntax highlighting doesn’t work which is an issue for me since a lot of the articles I read involve code. These are issues with every reader mode I’ve tried – iOS Safari, iOS/desktop Firefox, desktop Chrome. I wish there were a standard CSS media type that sites could implement, like `@media reader`, to help specify which elements should be included and to support things like syntax highlighting.
  - busymom0 5y ago
    I recently worked on implementing readability in my Hacker News client app and here's the resources I found most useful. Basically, if once designs their site following the correct structure, then it works correctly for both reader mode as well as accessibility. These are "standards" which sites are supposed to follow but they don't unfortunately: A very long read but this covers everything: > How to Section Your HTML https://css-tricks.com/how-to-section-your-html/ https://css-tricks.com/how-to-section-your-html/ These are specifically important for accessibility users. Another short read: > HTML5 sectioning elements, headings, and document outlines https://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201103/html5_sectioning_elements_headings_and_document_outlines/ https://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201103/html5_sectioni... And you can use Markup Validation Service to validate and get tips: https://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options https://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options Check out the excellent answer by Christian Kohlschütter on how readability works: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3652657/what-algorithm-does-readability-use-for-extracting-text-from-urls https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3652657/what-algorithm-d...
RyanGoosling 5y ago
why does a different set of CSS make it _fast_?
- bawolff 5y ago
  It probably doesn't in this case, but there are cases where css can have significant performance implications. Different selectors take different amounts of time, various things can force re-laying out the page etc. Not to mention pointless animation.
greggsy 5y ago
The default MediaWiki theme is available, along with a handful of others, if you create an account.
- bawolff 5y ago
  The default mediawiki theme (vector) is also the default wikipedia theme (on desktop). If you don't have an account you can add ?useskin=skinname to end of url to trigger different skins. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=timeless https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin... and https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=monobook https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin...
grishka 5y ago
That, and the density. I like desktop UIs to be dense. They don't have to be sparse with ample padding like on mobile devices since you don't poke your fingers into your monitor. Yet somehow, people keep designing desktop UIs as if there's a touchscreen or something.
- duderific 5y ago
  It's basic typographic design philosophy around whitespace - your eye needs somewhere to rest, and narrow columns of text are just easier to read. I personally like ample padding and whitespace, and don't want wall to wall content that just looks like a jumbled mess.
  - xemdetia 5y ago
    I agree with these typography principles when they are applied to things that should be read from top to bottom and the entirety of the content actually consumed as a whole. There's just many circumstances that it is not appropriate and I would say an encyclopedia entry is not one of them. I want to be able to scan a lot of content without having to change pages to find where I want to start reading from. That and people are really abusing the modern typography principle to get me to scroll more and 'engage' rather than just convey the information in a nice way (most news sites and recipe sites are egregious) that I'm starting to get turned off by the style for the web even though it's based in good reasoning. For print it's still fine because you are also limited and also it's often a two-column layout which is still pretty efficient for scanning for key words or phrases while being easy to read. 'Above the fold' used to mean something but in current web so much content wants to apply these principles but also wants me to scroll ten miles get to the actual point of the content and it feels really disrespectful to me as the reader.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - wruza 5y ago
    What is typographic around buttons, toolbars and other panes? your eye needs somewhere to rest There is a big difference between newspaper columns and web whitespace. The former are more or less uniform and easily seen (I’ve also read newspapers with explicit delineation of separate articles, and it was even better experience). The latter is just chaotic blobs of whitespace, which doesn’t usually even delineate or makes your eyes rest, it makes them lost instead. You can’t see structure, because it is so blobby. Whitespace should only surround the elements which are much more dense and “thicker” than it. Otherwise it will blend into them dissolving any structure.
smusamashah 5y ago
Any more details on that registry hack? I have been using RetroBar to have clear borders on taskbar and nostalgia. It doesn't have all actual features of windows 10 taskbar though.

Dah00n 5y ago

>An extension But... that's the opposite of what was asked for. Adding an extension adds more of the bad. A patch for Firefox reader mode would be better in my opinion since the web itself won't become better.

GhettoComputers 5y ago

I just used win+ arrow keys, never missed the resizing.

amatecha 5y ago
Whoa, I had no clue about these key-combos. So handy! Thanks!! For anyone curious, MS has a useful summary of how this works here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-windows-885a9b1e-a983-a3b1-16cd-c531795e6241 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-window...
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  No problem, I did it by accident, and you can also drag the windows to the corners and overshoot to have them, top is full, left and right is half that side, the link you posted mentions that, I am actually surprised you never accidentally discovered either. I have that in KDE as well.
  - wruza 5y ago
    Also, double-clicking on a top or a bottom edge will v-maximize window, or resizing a window vertically and overshooting at the top or at the bottom of the screen.
- jasonkester 5y ago
  Thanks for giving me a name for this that I can search for to turn it off. There’s nothing more annoying in my day than when I drag a window from one monitor to the other, then the windows cuts it in half and sticks it to the side of my screen. I never knew what windows called it before, so there was no way to get rid of it in settings.
  - naikrovek 5y ago
    > I never knew what windows called it before, so there was no way to get rid of it in settings. The settings pages aren't that big. You could read through it all in 5 minutes. Did you look? I mean sometimes things are annoying and you just can't be bothered to dig around to find the thing that turns it off, but at least in this case, it's easy: Settings > System > Multitasking > Snap windows
    - jasonkester 5y ago
      You can't possibly be serious. Out of curiosity, I just opened Windows 10 Settings. I see sixteen top level options. I opened the first one and it had 16 submenus, the first of which is two pages tall and has 8 additional settings links from it. Of course, Control Panel is also a place it could be hiding, and it's even bigger. So, no. One does not simply click on every single thing in settings hoping to find the annoying thing that Windows is doing today that you don't have a name for. Typing "Snap Window" into search narrows it down to three, which makes it possible to accomplish. Thanks again to the GP for enabling that.
      - naikrovek 5y ago
        I am serious. counting pages won't change how long it takes to actually understand where things are. you don't have to read every last word... you are just trying to get a vague feel for what is in there. takes 5 minutes, max.

shoto_io 5y ago

Why not use Reader Mode? I love it and use it as often as I can

framecowbird 5y ago
I love reader mode! It's saved the internet for me
HellsMaddy 5y ago
Reader mode is nice when it works, but since it’s hueristics-based I find it often either misses important content like images and code blocks that should be included with the article, or includes text that shouldn’t be there. Even if it selects all the right elements, syntax highlighting doesn’t work which is an issue for me since a lot of the articles I read involve code. These are issues with every reader mode I’ve tried – iOS Safari, iOS/desktop Firefox, desktop Chrome. I wish there were a standard CSS media type that sites could implement, like `@media reader`, to help specify which elements should be included and to support things like syntax highlighting.
- busymom0 5y ago
  I recently worked on implementing readability in my Hacker News client app and here's the resources I found most useful. Basically, if once designs their site following the correct structure, then it works correctly for both reader mode as well as accessibility. These are "standards" which sites are supposed to follow but they don't unfortunately: A very long read but this covers everything: > How to Section Your HTML https://css-tricks.com/how-to-section-your-html/ https://css-tricks.com/how-to-section-your-html/ These are specifically important for accessibility users. Another short read: > HTML5 sectioning elements, headings, and document outlines https://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201103/html5_sectioning_elements_headings_and_document_outlines/ https://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201103/html5_sectioni... And you can use Markup Validation Service to validate and get tips: https://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options https://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input+with_options Check out the excellent answer by Christian Kohlschütter on how readability works: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3652657/what-algorithm-does-readability-use-for-extracting-text-from-urls https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3652657/what-algorithm-d...

RyanGoosling 5y ago

why does a different set of CSS make it _fast_?

bawolff 5y ago
It probably doesn't in this case, but there are cases where css can have significant performance implications. Different selectors take different amounts of time, various things can force re-laying out the page etc. Not to mention pointless animation.

greggsy 5y ago

The default MediaWiki theme is available, along with a handful of others, if you create an account.

bawolff 5y ago
The default mediawiki theme (vector) is also the default wikipedia theme (on desktop). If you don't have an account you can add ?useskin=skinname to end of url to trigger different skins. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=timeless https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin... and https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=monobook https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin...

grishka 5y ago

That, and the density. I like desktop UIs to be dense. They don't have to be sparse with ample padding like on mobile devices since you don't poke your fingers into your monitor. Yet somehow, people keep designing desktop UIs as if there's a touchscreen or something.

duderific 5y ago
It's basic typographic design philosophy around whitespace - your eye needs somewhere to rest, and narrow columns of text are just easier to read. I personally like ample padding and whitespace, and don't want wall to wall content that just looks like a jumbled mess.
- xemdetia 5y ago
  I agree with these typography principles when they are applied to things that should be read from top to bottom and the entirety of the content actually consumed as a whole. There's just many circumstances that it is not appropriate and I would say an encyclopedia entry is not one of them. I want to be able to scan a lot of content without having to change pages to find where I want to start reading from. That and people are really abusing the modern typography principle to get me to scroll more and 'engage' rather than just convey the information in a nice way (most news sites and recipe sites are egregious) that I'm starting to get turned off by the style for the web even though it's based in good reasoning. For print it's still fine because you are also limited and also it's often a two-column layout which is still pretty efficient for scanning for key words or phrases while being easy to read. 'Above the fold' used to mean something but in current web so much content wants to apply these principles but also wants me to scroll ten miles get to the actual point of the content and it feels really disrespectful to me as the reader.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- wruza 5y ago
  What is typographic around buttons, toolbars and other panes? your eye needs somewhere to rest There is a big difference between newspaper columns and web whitespace. The former are more or less uniform and easily seen (I’ve also read newspapers with explicit delineation of separate articles, and it was even better experience). The latter is just chaotic blobs of whitespace, which doesn’t usually even delineate or makes your eyes rest, it makes them lost instead. You can’t see structure, because it is so blobby. Whitespace should only surround the elements which are much more dense and “thicker” than it. Otherwise it will blend into them dissolving any structure.

smusamashah 5y ago

Any more details on that registry hack? I have been using RetroBar to have clear borders on taskbar and nostalgia. It doesn't have all actual features of windows 10 taskbar though.