4 ms·

IMHO constraint systems like GSS (http://gridstylesheets.org/ http://gridstylesheets.org/) handle centering in a much cleaner way. Pity that approach hasn't got

by drcode 12y ago

IMHO constraint systems like GSS (http://gridstylesheets.org/ http://gridstylesheets.org/) handle centering in a much cleaner way. Pity that approach hasn't gotten any traction (though some people smarter than me say it's a bad idea, so who knows what the right answer is...)

woah 12y ago
I much prefer the deterministic flex box to the mysterious auto layout, even if you might have to use a container div here and there. I think constraint solving is a fascinating idea, but it always seems to end up involving me setting magic priority numbers with little understanding as to why.
ux-app 12y ago
When I first heard of GSS I thought it was the solution to layout that we'd all been waiting for. Unfortunately it's not all roses. It's possible, and quite easy to inadvertently create cyclical constraint dependencies. Depending on how your constraint solver is written this might mean that a layout will fail or that your system will lock or crash. I'm subscribed to a couple of constraint solver mailing lists. A common question is "why is my constraint solver doing this...?", or "how do I massage my constraints to achieve this...?" With CSS You can't build a layout that 'fails' (in the sense that a solution cannot be computed due to improperly defined dependencies), and you certainly can't send your browser into an infinite loop by applying an incorrect style. I still really like the idea of constraint based systems, but I think they are more suited to (web)applications rather than documents.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  > I still really like the idea of constraint based systems, but I think they are more suited to (web)applications rather than documents. Which is what some people will tell you web is about when you point out to them they're doing something weird instead of writing a document communicating a message. Maybe it's time to separate those two use cases - web pages and web applications - because otherwise people will keep getting confused between the needs and problems of the two? Anyway, GSS looks pretty cool.

by drcode 12y ago

woah 12y ago

I much prefer the deterministic flex box to the mysterious auto layout, even if you might have to use a container div here and there. I think constraint solving is a fascinating idea, but it always seems to end up involving me setting magic priority numbers with little understanding as to why.

ux-app 12y ago

When I first heard of GSS I thought it was the solution to layout that we'd all been waiting for. Unfortunately it's not all roses. It's possible, and quite easy to inadvertently create cyclical constraint dependencies. Depending on how your constraint solver is written this might mean that a layout will fail or that your system will lock or crash. I'm subscribed to a couple of constraint solver mailing lists. A common question is "why is my constraint solver doing this...?", or "how do I massage my constraints to achieve this...?" With CSS You can't build a layout that 'fails' (in the sense that a solution cannot be computed due to improperly defined dependencies), and you certainly can't send your browser into an infinite loop by applying an incorrect style. I still really like the idea of constraint based systems, but I think they are more suited to (web)applications rather than documents.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
> I still really like the idea of constraint based systems, but I think they are more suited to (web)applications rather than documents. Which is what some people will tell you web is about when you point out to them they're doing something weird instead of writing a document communicating a message. Maybe it's time to separate those two use cases - web pages and web applications - because otherwise people will keep getting confused between the needs and problems of the two? Anyway, GSS looks pretty cool.