3 ms·

To be fair, the author notes this and offers an alternative: > One immediate thought is that this is completely superseded by the regular browser scroll bar th

by jonahx 2y ago

To be fair, the author notes this and offers an alternative: > One immediate thought is that this is completely superseded by the regular browser scroll bar that’s ever-present at the side of the page. However, the scroll bar could be deceiving. If your page has a comments section, the comments could make the page look dauntingly long. Similarly, references to other pages and general “footer material” count towards the scroll bar, but would not count towards the progress bar. > Combining the two, you could imagine an always-visible table of contents that highlights the current section you’re in. With such a feature, you can always see where you are (including a rough estimate of how far into the page you’ve scrolled), and at the same time see how the current section integrates into the broader structure.

crazygringo 2y ago
Exactly this. When you're reading different news sites, you never have any idea which sites load hundreds of comments at the bottom and which don't. What you think is a long article actually turns out to be 80% comments by page length. The same thing happens with books that include references at the end — a print book can be 20% endnotes. I've even encountered bizarre EPUB's where for some incomprehensible reason there's a page break between each endnote, so the actual content of the book ends somewhere around the 5% mark of total page count. I actually really appreciate a super-thin (2px) progress bar in the header. I don't like an always-visible table of contents because I find it really distracting. But I really like the way Wikipedia does it in their app, where it's a single tap to reveal the table of contents full-screen, centered on and highlighting your current section.
- antihero 2y ago
  Personally I just look but I see the value of very subtle scrollbar.
zzo38computer 2y ago
That is a relevant point, although still it shouldn't be necessary; proper semantic HTML commands should allow the browser to handle it automatically (in the way subject to user preferences), e.g. the <ARTICLE> command can be used if you want to delimit the article from the comments, and with commands such as <H1>, <H2>, etc you can delimit sections and automatically make a table of contents.
- hju22_-3 2y ago
  That just sounds terrible. I want the program's scroll bar to reflect the actual size as accurately as possible. Anything else just sounds annoying.
  - zzo38computer 2y ago
    So do I, which is why it can be a user preference. (One way might be to display marks on the scroll bar for the top and bottom of the article, therefore giving you both advantages at once.)
  - account42 2y ago
    The browser could use this information in various ways depending on the preferences of the user. One example is the scroll bar map mode implemented in various text editors where a scaled down version of the content is shown to help you see where you are. Similarly a browser could visualize the size and location of certain elements (e.g. <article> and <section>) on the scroll bar. The key here is that it is the browser doing it so that you have a choice in wheter you want it or not on all websites.

by jonahx 2y ago

crazygringo 2y ago

Exactly this. When you're reading different news sites, you never have any idea which sites load hundreds of comments at the bottom and which don't. What you think is a long article actually turns out to be 80% comments by page length. The same thing happens with books that include references at the end — a print book can be 20% endnotes. I've even encountered bizarre EPUB's where for some incomprehensible reason there's a page break between each endnote, so the actual content of the book ends somewhere around the 5% mark of total page count. I actually really appreciate a super-thin (2px) progress bar in the header. I don't like an always-visible table of contents because I find it really distracting. But I really like the way Wikipedia does it in their app, where it's a single tap to reveal the table of contents full-screen, centered on and highlighting your current section.

antihero 2y ago
Personally I just look but I see the value of very subtle scrollbar.

zzo38computer 2y ago

That is a relevant point, although still it shouldn't be necessary; proper semantic HTML commands should allow the browser to handle it automatically (in the way subject to user preferences), e.g. the <ARTICLE> command can be used if you want to delimit the article from the comments, and with commands such as <H1>, <H2>, etc you can delimit sections and automatically make a table of contents.

hju22_-3 2y ago
That just sounds terrible. I want the program's scroll bar to reflect the actual size as accurately as possible. Anything else just sounds annoying.
- zzo38computer 2y ago
  So do I, which is why it can be a user preference. (One way might be to display marks on the scroll bar for the top and bottom of the article, therefore giving you both advantages at once.)
- account42 2y ago
  The browser could use this information in various ways depending on the preferences of the user. One example is the scroll bar map mode implemented in various text editors where a scaled down version of the content is shown to help you see where you are. Similarly a browser could visualize the size and location of certain elements (e.g. <article> and <section>) on the scroll bar. The key here is that it is the browser doing it so that you have a choice in wheter you want it or not on all websites.