Smooth CoffeeScript
autotelicum.github.com
autotelicum.github.com
I know you love your fluid-width layouts, but just because you can fill the entire window with content, doesn't mean you have to. Blocks of text become difficult to read (and also ugly) when lines get to a certain length. The rule of thumb is that about 60-80 characters per line is comfortable. On my display, this site has about 250 characters per line and it makes me want to hit the back button. Yes, I can use Readability, but that strips out the code formatting. Simple fix: put a containing div around your content, and set a max-width on that container.
See Jashkenas's work for examples of well-formatted technical writing:
http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/
http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/documentation/docs...
Anyway, looks like a nice resource. Thanks for sharing.
So to me the advice makes things worse, not better. 60-80 chars per line???? Even my email is wider than that. Go for at least 200.
This stuff with narrow lines may have been tested on poor readers perhaps? I don't know. All I know is I hate narrow lines - and I especially hate them on websites.
Also, none of those 7 even did a proper A/B/A test on what they claim --while the counter-example is well shown in tons of tests.
Your point still stands, of course.
If you disagree then that'a ace but take the responsibility for your own defaults.
But a lot more people than you realize do not like narrow lines.
It's a great suggestion. @autotelicum -- have you considered adding a little interactive console to the page?
I would also like to know if the 'Send to Kindle' readability function results in a readable document. That was the reason for making this version.
A pdf version, a quick reference and a JavaScript supplement is on the web site at http://autotelicum.github.com/Smooth-CoffeeScript/
Edit: Okay got it - was really easy to setup with the Readability button. Flipping though the book - the pictures at the start are fine, links open up the browser correct, the prose portion is nicely formatted. The code snippets are, sadly, pretty unreadable. Using the default font most of the lines wrap and it becomes a mess (compounded by coffeescript indentations). Things were a bit better on the Kindle Fire - but that's essentially a tablet browser and I would just go directly to the website vs having it sent as a document.
Not sure if the e-ink Kindles switch to landscape mode as easily.
This is really nice, but a bit too 'deep' or 'tl;dr' for my personal tastes. I was able to learn the basics really quickly and then started writing code and learning more from there as I ran into things I didn't know how to do.
That said, anything to further the learning of CS is great in my book. Nice job.