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Hello HN, After a long time working on this project, I'm finally ready to share the first public version of Orbit. Although there's still much to be done, I be

Hello HN, After a long time working on this project, I'm finally ready to share the first public version of Orbit. Although there's still much to be done, I believe this project is ready to move beyond internal testing. Orbit is a CSS framework that lets you create simple or complex radial designs and UIs, from pie charts to radial menus, and even fully radial pages. Orbit is designed to be simple, extensible and compatible with other tools and frameworks, using space-related concepts. To see Orbit in action, check out the landing page, which is built with Orbit. You can also find additional examples here https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/. I hope you like it and I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Thanks! Martin

th3w3bmast3r 2y ago
It looks really really cool. I'm really loving the "An abstract orbital map" example. I am curious to know, what prompted you to make this framework?
- tinchox5 2y ago
  Glad you like it! Several years ago, I wrote my first project, Zircle UI, which mixed zoomable navigation with circular UI. It was not flexible at all, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot from this experience. Then, I decided to split Zircle into two independent parts: Orbit for radial UI (I mean, not constrained to circular shapes), and Zumly, a JS zoomable WIP engine (https://github.com/zumerlab/zumly https://github.com/zumerlab/zumly). While you can use both projects together, they can also be used independently
  - th3w3bmast3r 2y ago
    Very cool! Do you have a lot of design experience? The demo and the page was very artistically put together.
    - tinchox5 2y ago
      I must confess that I don't have any experience in graphic design. I actually used existing examples that I thought were well-designed and tried to recreate them using Orbit to see if it was possible.
  - djhn 2y ago
    I’ve been super interested in zoomable interfaces for text - there was an interesting demo in a rust conference talk: https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg?si=h6xv3fgOXkBTXg3R https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg?si=h6xv3fgOXkBTXg3R (skip to 14:45 to see it in action)
- leetrout 2y ago
  Where is this example?
  - th3w3bmast3r 2y ago
    https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ -> It was here.
    - leetrout 2y ago
      Thanks
spankalee 2y ago
Very nice use of web components! I wonder, could you make custom element alternatives to the .bigbang and .gravity-spot classes too? Then they could attach their own resize observers without requiring the developer to do so manually.
- tinchox5 2y ago
  I was hesitant to develop custom elements at first because I wanted to use just CSS classes and custom variables. However, in certain cases, the developer experience is a mess without using custom elements. About your question, yes, I would make custom element alternatives.

th3w3bmast3r 2y ago

It looks really really cool. I'm really loving the "An abstract orbital map" example. I am curious to know, what prompted you to make this framework?

tinchox5 2y ago
Glad you like it! Several years ago, I wrote my first project, Zircle UI, which mixed zoomable navigation with circular UI. It was not flexible at all, but I enjoyed it and learned a lot from this experience. Then, I decided to split Zircle into two independent parts: Orbit for radial UI (I mean, not constrained to circular shapes), and Zumly, a JS zoomable WIP engine (https://github.com/zumerlab/zumly https://github.com/zumerlab/zumly). While you can use both projects together, they can also be used independently
- th3w3bmast3r 2y ago
  Very cool! Do you have a lot of design experience? The demo and the page was very artistically put together.
  - tinchox5 2y ago
    I must confess that I don't have any experience in graphic design. I actually used existing examples that I thought were well-designed and tried to recreate them using Orbit to see if it was possible.
- djhn 2y ago
  I’ve been super interested in zoomable interfaces for text - there was an interesting demo in a rust conference talk: https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg?si=h6xv3fgOXkBTXg3R https://youtu.be/rC4FCS-oMpg?si=h6xv3fgOXkBTXg3R (skip to 14:45 to see it in action)
leetrout 2y ago
Where is this example?
- th3w3bmast3r 2y ago
  https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/examples/ -> It was here.
  - leetrout 2y ago
    Thanks

spankalee 2y ago

Very nice use of web components! I wonder, could you make custom element alternatives to the .bigbang and .gravity-spot classes too? Then they could attach their own resize observers without requiring the developer to do so manually.

tinchox5 2y ago
I was hesitant to develop custom elements at first because I wanted to use just CSS classes and custom variables. However, in certain cases, the developer experience is a mess without using custom elements. About your question, yes, I would make custom element alternatives.