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Topic: Every once in a while I try... BootStrap (Read 10205 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Every once in a while I try... BootStrap

Reply #30

Quote from: Spuds – Anyway I don't intend to replace or force this on anyone, its simply and experiment to understand what can be done to improve our templates.  They are still un-standardized in markup and redundant across similar views of data.  Many are monolithic and need to be broken down allowing resue elsewhere (some of that was done with the generics but I feel a lot more can be done)  All of this leads to css complications and template bloat and of course maintainability issues.
Yeah sure, I agree with all of that. The whole markup/CSS thing could do with some rationalising.
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Every once in a while I try... BootStrap

Reply #31

They have been the victim of many years of abuse ... I bet there are layout/markup in some of them that predates smf 1.0.

I think what happens is that the 20% of the templates, the ones that account for 80% of the usage, get nicely updated.  Then when the stark reality that there is still 80% of the job to go, one can actually loose the will to live ... its zomg why the frig do we have some many templates!   Then you do the smart thing and take the red pill and escape.  Thats what happened to both Ant 1.0 and Bloc 1.0, at least thats what I read on the internet so it can't be wrong.

Anyway every time I look into them I feel they need "something" to simplify, commonise, cleanup ... not sure how to go about that anyway, so the framework was a exercise, at least for me.

Re: Every once in a while I try... BootStrap

Reply #32

Yeah it was partly that. Thing is some of the templates are ones I've never used in all my years of using SMF. The only time I ever looked at them is when testing the effing things for a release.

Profile stats page is an obvious example. Even when I was running a forum as admin I never found a use for that page. It doesn't look like anything special, and most of the information is pointless AFAICT. Arantor and I were talking about this with regard the YAGNI principle. If you have something that's pretty much useless but is a right mongrel to test and debug, as well as being a bit of a performance hog when called, at some point you start wondering why it's there.

The other thing with themers is they're usually fussy about detail. layout, etc and so they have a tendency to hate shifting goalposts. Bloc and I both find it far more pleasant and interesting to take a codebase we don't like and hack it to suit ourselves, instead of trying to deal with one that's constantly changing. Bikken is the same. If it's going to constantly change, we only want one bugger doing the changes (namely us). Plus we'd rather just do it instead of trying to convince others why it should be done and how. IOW, none of us are team players by nature.

Oh and dodgey broswer shiz sucks. :P

I like the general direction Bloc's going in with his simplification efforts. I has occurred to me that it might be interesting to try and adapt my monster eye candy theme to his template/css basics, just to see what the limits are (if any).
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P

Re: Every once in a while I try... BootStrap

Reply #33

Oh here's something I found interesting- Tablet Usability: Findings from User Research

QuoteSummary: Flat design and improperly rescaled design are the main threats to tablet usability, followed by poor gestures and workflow.

Dangers Ahead

The two main threats to tablet usability are:

  • Flat design. Why not allow users to easily see what they can do? We need a golden middle ground between skeuomorphism and a dearth of distinguishing signifiers for UI elements.
  • Rescaled design. Whether shoehorned down from a bigger screen or grotesquely exploded from a phone screen, too many Android designs simply don’t fit the tablet’s actual screen size. (Poorly rescaled designs are less common on iPad and Windows tablets, probably because of smaller device diversity.)
  
   
The flat design threat is a fashionable trend that will hopefully subside before it hurts users (and companies) too much. The second threat will be with us longer, because it’s caused by resource constraints and the naïve idea that a single design is good enough as long as it adapts to the available screen space.
Yes, you read that right. He said flat design is a threat to usability. :D

Obviously this will depend on exactly how it is implemented, but it's not as simple as "flat design = good".
Master of Expletives: Now with improved family f@&king friendliness! :D

Sources code: making easy front end changes difficult since 1873. :P