3 ms·

"Pagination is also friction. Ever been on a forum where you wished like hell the other people responding to the thread had read all four pages of it before typ

"Pagination is also friction. Ever been on a forum where you wished like hell the other people responding to the thread had read all four pages of it before typing their response?" I mostly agree with wumpus here as this relates to search results, but it is interesting that forums are brought into it because forums (generally the smaller, community type forums with long-tail discussions as opposed to reddit or even HN where discussions are generally about 24 hours max and then dropped) are the one place I absolutely love pagination. The unfolding discussion of a particular thread tends to have a timeline in my brain that maps to the pagination of the thread. eg. Oh, subtopic XYZ, that first came up at about page 5... lemme jump over there and refresh my mind on how that came up. Taking away pagination in forums would be a net negative for me, much like code folding is a net negative for me (I tend to have a map of the code in my mind that is impossible to keep if the code is folded in some random configuration). Granted, this is subjective and entirely personal, so I'm not saying he's wrong (or that code folding is wrong for everyone), just that getting rid of pagination is not necessarily great for all people in all situations.

tsewlliw 15y ago
I can't agree more about code folding. The shape of the code lets me use visual patterns instead of actually thinking about the parse tree
- alextgordon 15y ago
  Supposedly the role of code folding is to reduce distractions. But I also find it far too distracting when the code moves around (though it's fine when it's less than a screenful). Perhaps it would work better if the code were simply hidden instead of collapsed. Then the non-folded code would remain in the same place as before, and it would be less disorienting.
- tfm 15y ago
  I thought I was the only one! (sob) I've tried folding, so many times, but it just seems like I'm fighting against it. I don't know that it's the shape of the code that's being hidden that spoils it, maybe I'm just a bottom-up kinda guy. Maybe there is a need for a support group here.
  - EvilTerran 15y ago
    Have you seen Notepad++'s new document map feature? It sounds right up your street, as an alternative to folding for getting up & down long code files more quickly: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/assets/images/docMap2.png http://notepad-plus-plus.org/assets/images/docMap2.png (on the right hand side)
jiggy2011 15y ago
I think that more forums need a simpler, better search function. Although google are solving this problem somewhat themselves with groups search etc. To do a search on most phpBB or similar forums you have to first be a registered member, fill out a big complicated form and often solve a captcha. Part of the reason for this I guess is that many of these forums are hosted cheaply so the IO/CPU overhead for doing many searches is not trivial. I can't count the number of times I've been on the forum and someone has asked a question and they get directed to the search feature. I also like the feature some forums have where you can show the entire thread on one big page if you so choose.

tsewlliw 15y ago

I can't agree more about code folding. The shape of the code lets me use visual patterns instead of actually thinking about the parse tree

alextgordon 15y ago
Supposedly the role of code folding is to reduce distractions. But I also find it far too distracting when the code moves around (though it's fine when it's less than a screenful). Perhaps it would work better if the code were simply hidden instead of collapsed. Then the non-folded code would remain in the same place as before, and it would be less disorienting.
tfm 15y ago
I thought I was the only one! (sob) I've tried folding, so many times, but it just seems like I'm fighting against it. I don't know that it's the shape of the code that's being hidden that spoils it, maybe I'm just a bottom-up kinda guy. Maybe there is a need for a support group here.
- EvilTerran 15y ago
  Have you seen Notepad++'s new document map feature? It sounds right up your street, as an alternative to folding for getting up & down long code files more quickly: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/assets/images/docMap2.png http://notepad-plus-plus.org/assets/images/docMap2.png (on the right hand side)

jiggy2011 15y ago

I think that more forums need a simpler, better search function. Although google are solving this problem somewhat themselves with groups search etc. To do a search on most phpBB or similar forums you have to first be a registered member, fill out a big complicated form and often solve a captcha. Part of the reason for this I guess is that many of these forums are hosted cheaply so the IO/CPU overhead for doing many searches is not trivial. I can't count the number of times I've been on the forum and someone has asked a question and they get directed to the search feature. I also like the feature some forums have where you can show the entire thread on one big page if you so choose.