Famo.us So Far: Field Guide for April 2014

Let's clear up some misconceptions quickly:

1. I think they botched their 'launch', badly. 2. It is completely open source: repo[1] , examples[2] , docs[3] 3. It's not magic either: this is why it's fast[4] 4. What is in the beta is access to the demos and tutorials, which take the form of something like codecademy.

A picture says a thousand words, so let's try this. screenshot from positioning page of interactive tutorial[5] .

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[1] https://github.com/Famous

[2] https://github.com/Famous/examples/tree/master/src/examples

[3] http://famo.us/guides/

[4] http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/high-performanc...

[5] http://i.imgur.com/08gn1sf.png

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It gives you the absolutely pain free way to center any surface (which is just a DOM element) both vertically and horizontally.

    { origin: [0, 0] } // left top corner
    { origin: [1, 1] } // bottom right corner
    { origin: [0.5, 0.5] } // dead center

    // and THEN....

    { size: [500, undefined] } // full height column sidebar
    { size: [undefined, 100] } // full width footer
    { size: [undefined, undefined] } // full screen surface
    
    

I think this is a breath of fresh air, and I'm going to build more stuff with it (or something that is like it), because I really think it makes the code much much easier to reason about.

This is how you make responsive layouts in it[6]. If size > width. so much simpler than media queries and css overrides and what not.

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[6] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23140046/what-is-the-best...

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What they have done is package known good techniques in a way that I would actually consider using them in real projects with mid level developers who might not otherwise understand the nuances of linear algebra. I sure as hell don't, but this makes it accessible.

I am honestly not affiliated. I knew it existed, but I recently discovered a good reason to play with it, so i figured it out from the examples and the docs.

While compiling this, I was unable to find any dissenting opinions from anyone who actually had tried it, because of how the launch went down. I think more people should try it before they reject it.

Just play with it. Please.