4 ms·

I absolutely hate smooth-scrolling. It's one of the first things that I disable. I can't stand the way smooth-scrolling "feels,"... "mushy," and "laggy" are the

I absolutely hate smooth-scrolling. It's one of the first things that I disable. I can't stand the way smooth-scrolling "feels,"... "mushy," and "laggy" are the best words I can think of to describe it.

fellerts 3y ago
Same, I react viscerally when an app implements smooth scrolling. Fixed increments is an absolute must. It’s interesting how different people can be.
josephg 3y ago
On Linux? Do you hate it on macOS as well? I’ve used Macs for a number of years - and on macOS, mouse scroll events have been very “precise” for a long time - sending scroll events in fractions of a line. Scroll isn’t a button. It’s an axis. It feels great - because you have direct, continuous control. I moved to Linux mint a couple years ago and tried to bring my Apple magic touchpad with me. (I prefer it over a mouse while coding.) Linux has APIs which return precise scroll offsets, but a lot of apps don’t use them. Instead, Firefox will wait until I’ve scrolled an entire line worth, then emulate a smooth scrolling event to “catch up” to the scrolling I’ve already done. It feels horrible. Mushy and laggy are the right words. IntelliJ has the same problem - I assume precise scroll events don’t survive whatever event library they’re using. I’ve given up and gone back to a mouse on Linux. And turned smooth scrolling off. Smooth scrolling is a great idea - but for my money it’s only worth it if you have direct, continuous control over the scrolling position. And unfortunately on Linux (and probably windows) that’s held back by bad software support.
- zh3 3y ago
  Maybe it's just what you're used to - having got a Mac for the "premium experience", I found it sluggish and slow (albeit compared to a stripped down X11 system, rather than a full-on compositor experience)
- toast0 3y ago
  I seem to recall smooth scrolling on the Mac having the same basic issue as elsewhere. It takes an instantaneous scroll input and turns it into an animation. Scrolling half lines is fine and all, but I want the scroll position to jump to where it's going; possibly with multiple jumps if my input is over several frames.
  - josephg 3y ago
    With what input device? Macos cant make a clicky mouse wheel smooth.
    - toast0 3y ago
      Mostly, I scroll with a keyboard, but sometimes a scroll wheel yeah. Not a fan of trackpads. But turning off smooth scrolling made scrolling with those other devices feel better (to me), as I recall.
      - josephg 3y ago
        Yeah that makes sense to me. Keyboards and scroll wheels don’t have the precise control that trackpads (and Apple’s Magic Mouse) have. Clicky scroll wheels aren’t magically better on macOS. It’s the continuous, precise scrolling experience of a good trackpad that fixes it. Apple nailed it if you use their hardware and software.
- zajio1am 3y ago
  I pretty much agree with OP, but i could see an argument for smooth scrolling with precise mouse scroll events. But: 1) Most mouse scroll wheels feels discrete / have low resolution, so they behave more like discrete press. With my current mouse, each wheel up/down event does scrolling of several (~5) lines. 2) There is scrolling from keyboard (up / down / page-up / page-down), which are definitely discrete events, so any smooth scrolling from that is laggy.
127361 3y ago
I personally hate anything that adds unnecessary latency, that's why I disable smooth scrolling and desktop effects. I even have a CSS hack to disable all transitions, animations and fades on the Web. It makes everything instantaneous, which I really like. I also use plain X11 without a compositor, so I have a super low latency desktop that feels really fast.
- zh3 3y ago
  Totally with you; first thing on a new system is hit the "accessibilty" settings to disable features/improve latency. There's also the pointless visual distractions (e.g. firefox blue flash) even after killing web page animations,
  - 127361 3y ago
    I eliminated Firefox animations with a custom userChrome.css file. They are all gone.
    - zh3 3y ago
      Snap. You nixed the blue flash too? /* No blue swipe on tabs when loaded */ .tabbrowser-tab .tab-loading-burst { display: none !important; } Can't find the original reference, looks like plenty of others though, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/comments/11js1cuprevent_tab_reload_animation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/comments/11js1cuprevent_...
      - 127361 3y ago
        Blue flash completely destroyed, I confirm it. This is my userChrome.css (I also have a megabar remover in there, that's not shown here): * { transition-delay: 0ms !important; /* This is the magic to kill it 100% */ transition-timing-function: steps(1, jump-start) !important; /* Animation Killer */ animation-delay: 0ms !important; animation-duration: 0ms !important; animation-iteration-count: 1 !important; animation-timing-function: steps(1, jump-start) !important; } Also I have ui.PrefersReducedMotion=1 set in about:config.
deleted 3y ago
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fellerts 3y ago

Same, I react viscerally when an app implements smooth scrolling. Fixed increments is an absolute must. It’s interesting how different people can be.

josephg 3y ago

On Linux? Do you hate it on macOS as well? I’ve used Macs for a number of years - and on macOS, mouse scroll events have been very “precise” for a long time - sending scroll events in fractions of a line. Scroll isn’t a button. It’s an axis. It feels great - because you have direct, continuous control. I moved to Linux mint a couple years ago and tried to bring my Apple magic touchpad with me. (I prefer it over a mouse while coding.) Linux has APIs which return precise scroll offsets, but a lot of apps don’t use them. Instead, Firefox will wait until I’ve scrolled an entire line worth, then emulate a smooth scrolling event to “catch up” to the scrolling I’ve already done. It feels horrible. Mushy and laggy are the right words. IntelliJ has the same problem - I assume precise scroll events don’t survive whatever event library they’re using. I’ve given up and gone back to a mouse on Linux. And turned smooth scrolling off. Smooth scrolling is a great idea - but for my money it’s only worth it if you have direct, continuous control over the scrolling position. And unfortunately on Linux (and probably windows) that’s held back by bad software support.

zh3 3y ago
Maybe it's just what you're used to - having got a Mac for the "premium experience", I found it sluggish and slow (albeit compared to a stripped down X11 system, rather than a full-on compositor experience)
toast0 3y ago
I seem to recall smooth scrolling on the Mac having the same basic issue as elsewhere. It takes an instantaneous scroll input and turns it into an animation. Scrolling half lines is fine and all, but I want the scroll position to jump to where it's going; possibly with multiple jumps if my input is over several frames.
- josephg 3y ago
  With what input device? Macos cant make a clicky mouse wheel smooth.
  - toast0 3y ago
    Mostly, I scroll with a keyboard, but sometimes a scroll wheel yeah. Not a fan of trackpads. But turning off smooth scrolling made scrolling with those other devices feel better (to me), as I recall.
    - josephg 3y ago
      Yeah that makes sense to me. Keyboards and scroll wheels don’t have the precise control that trackpads (and Apple’s Magic Mouse) have. Clicky scroll wheels aren’t magically better on macOS. It’s the continuous, precise scrolling experience of a good trackpad that fixes it. Apple nailed it if you use their hardware and software.
zajio1am 3y ago
I pretty much agree with OP, but i could see an argument for smooth scrolling with precise mouse scroll events. But: 1) Most mouse scroll wheels feels discrete / have low resolution, so they behave more like discrete press. With my current mouse, each wheel up/down event does scrolling of several (~5) lines. 2) There is scrolling from keyboard (up / down / page-up / page-down), which are definitely discrete events, so any smooth scrolling from that is laggy.

127361 3y ago

I personally hate anything that adds unnecessary latency, that's why I disable smooth scrolling and desktop effects. I even have a CSS hack to disable all transitions, animations and fades on the Web. It makes everything instantaneous, which I really like. I also use plain X11 without a compositor, so I have a super low latency desktop that feels really fast.

zh3 3y ago
Totally with you; first thing on a new system is hit the "accessibilty" settings to disable features/improve latency. There's also the pointless visual distractions (e.g. firefox blue flash) even after killing web page animations,
- 127361 3y ago
  I eliminated Firefox animations with a custom userChrome.css file. They are all gone.
  - zh3 3y ago
    Snap. You nixed the blue flash too? /* No blue swipe on tabs when loaded */ .tabbrowser-tab .tab-loading-burst { display: none !important; } Can't find the original reference, looks like plenty of others though, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/comments/11js1cuprevent_tab_reload_animation/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/comments/11js1cuprevent_...
    - 127361 3y ago
      Blue flash completely destroyed, I confirm it. This is my userChrome.css (I also have a megabar remover in there, that's not shown here): * { transition-delay: 0ms !important; /* This is the magic to kill it 100% */ transition-timing-function: steps(1, jump-start) !important; /* Animation Killer */ animation-delay: 0ms !important; animation-duration: 0ms !important; animation-iteration-count: 1 !important; animation-timing-function: steps(1, jump-start) !important; } Also I have ui.PrefersReducedMotion=1 set in about:config.

deleted 3y ago

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