4 ms·

I deal with a lot of data in tabular form, and I like to have as much of it in front of me at once as I can. The biggest influence on my report design has been

I deal with a lot of data in tabular form, and I like to have as much of it in front of me at once as I can. The biggest influence on my report design has been, believe it or not, iTunes: no more padding than necessary, zebra striping, fast and easy sorting, and something like a column browser if possible. I've been using DataTables happily for years. One thing I've been experimenting with lately is sorting vs. showing. If I'm pulling data from Jira, and an issue is blocked, do I need a separate boolean column to sort or filter, or is it enough to style another column (say, age)? In a table with a hundred or more rows, will an orange, red, or bold red value in a single cell stand out enough for me to recognize something I need to address now? Looking at the table view of this experiment, the things I like are: * live updating * stable sorting for multiple columns * row highlight on hover * dimming the trailing zeros * colors aren't overdone; basically just three pairs of colors * graph in the 24H Low/High column, kind of like a sparkline The things that don't land as well with me: * horizontal scroll bar is almost invisible * the wide vertical scroll bar with the graph * how does 24H Low/High actually sort? * no filtering (although it may not be essential for this data source) The other thing I notice, comparing this to some of my own reports, is that there isn't much variance in the width of the values. It's harder to manage column widths with text than a bunch of numbers.

jgalt212 2y ago
DataTables is great. Been using it for 10+ on a single product. We keep looking for a newer and better replacement, but have yet to find it.
- reaperman 2y ago
  Same, absolutely "stuck" with DataTables. It seems to work well even with comprehensive UI frameworks on top of it like SB Admin Pro. Just super easy to integrate DataTables and has 90% of the features I ever want.
  - LoganDark 2y ago
    Honestly this doesn't even sound like a particularly bad thing. Sort of like how Houdini has literally no competition whatsoever. Like it's actually hilarious how nothing even comes close. It just works so well that nobody can really hope to ever do better, and there is nearly 0 enshittification happening, so its existing users have no reason to ever switch.
    - mst 2y ago
      Having found more than one thing called that, could you enlighten me as to which Houdini you're referring to, please?
      - malkia 2y ago
        Assuming it's the SideFX product - https://www.sidefx.com/ https://www.sidefx.com/ - it's simply the best in it's class.
        LoganDark 2y ago
        Yep, sorry, that is indeed what I meant; I had originally said Houdini FX but I couldn't tell if that was the true product name or not since there are non-FX versions. Bleh.
        __jonas 2y ago
        I’m not super familiar with 3D stuff, but I’m curious what the “class” here is, is it specifically procedural sort of effects creation mainly for film? I’m assuming for ‘regular’ 3D modelling people still prefer other software like blender/max right?
        LoganDark 2y ago
        It's for procedural effects and simulation, yeah. Stuff like fluid and gas simulation, interactions between them, surface deformation from stuff like footprints or tire treads or whatever. In those areas Houdini can't be beat. > I’m assuming for ‘regular’ 3D modelling people still prefer other software like blender/max right? It depends. I'm not sure if Houdini has modeling stuff, it's been a while since I used it. Houdini is only one element of a complete workflow, that's why it has so many importers and exporters.
  - halfcat 2y ago
    ”90% of the features I ever want” What’s in the other 10%?
    - reaperman 2y ago
      Honestly just UI tweaks to make the density higher, especially for controls. I could do this myself with mostly CSS if I wasn’t incredibly lazy.
dr_dshiv 2y ago
Conditional formatting to indicate magnitude via color?
sgt 2y ago
I remember delaying my upgrade to Catalina because I worried that iTunes.app would disappear. It was completely underrated. I was so happy to find out that Music.app is pretty much the same app and the migration was easy.
brailsafe 2y ago
I've also been experimenting with mac app development for interfacing with Jira and other work that's ongoing but async. Less so on the data viewing side, and moreso on having agency over what I'm alerted to and when, but your comment and this UI has inspired me to try other ideas, since I kind of got stuck on a main data view

jgalt212 2y ago

DataTables is great. Been using it for 10+ on a single product. We keep looking for a newer and better replacement, but have yet to find it.

reaperman 2y ago
Same, absolutely "stuck" with DataTables. It seems to work well even with comprehensive UI frameworks on top of it like SB Admin Pro. Just super easy to integrate DataTables and has 90% of the features I ever want.
- LoganDark 2y ago
  Honestly this doesn't even sound like a particularly bad thing. Sort of like how Houdini has literally no competition whatsoever. Like it's actually hilarious how nothing even comes close. It just works so well that nobody can really hope to ever do better, and there is nearly 0 enshittification happening, so its existing users have no reason to ever switch.
  - mst 2y ago
    Having found more than one thing called that, could you enlighten me as to which Houdini you're referring to, please?
    - malkia 2y ago
      Assuming it's the SideFX product - https://www.sidefx.com/ https://www.sidefx.com/ - it's simply the best in it's class.
      - LoganDark 2y ago
        Yep, sorry, that is indeed what I meant; I had originally said Houdini FX but I couldn't tell if that was the true product name or not since there are non-FX versions. Bleh.
      - __jonas 2y ago
        I’m not super familiar with 3D stuff, but I’m curious what the “class” here is, is it specifically procedural sort of effects creation mainly for film? I’m assuming for ‘regular’ 3D modelling people still prefer other software like blender/max right?
        LoganDark 2y ago
        It's for procedural effects and simulation, yeah. Stuff like fluid and gas simulation, interactions between them, surface deformation from stuff like footprints or tire treads or whatever. In those areas Houdini can't be beat. > I’m assuming for ‘regular’ 3D modelling people still prefer other software like blender/max right? It depends. I'm not sure if Houdini has modeling stuff, it's been a while since I used it. Houdini is only one element of a complete workflow, that's why it has so many importers and exporters.
- halfcat 2y ago
  ”90% of the features I ever want” What’s in the other 10%?
  - reaperman 2y ago
    Honestly just UI tweaks to make the density higher, especially for controls. I could do this myself with mostly CSS if I wasn’t incredibly lazy.

dr_dshiv 2y ago

Conditional formatting to indicate magnitude via color?

sgt 2y ago

I remember delaying my upgrade to Catalina because I worried that iTunes.app would disappear. It was completely underrated. I was so happy to find out that Music.app is pretty much the same app and the migration was easy.

brailsafe 2y ago

I've also been experimenting with mac app development for interfacing with Jira and other work that's ongoing but async. Less so on the data viewing side, and moreso on having agency over what I'm alerted to and when, but your comment and this UI has inspired me to try other ideas, since I kind of got stuck on a main data view