Re: [css-snappoints] 2/27 Updated ED

On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 1:47 PM, Robert O'Callahan <robert@ocallahan.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 8:04 AM, Matt Rakow <marakow@microsoft.com> wrote:
>> As a couple counter-examples:  Consider a spreadsheet application, which
>> generally snaps rows/columns consistently to the top/left edge.
>
> Spreadsheets are weird; they behave like no other scrollable content. For
> example, when you drag the scrollbar thumb, you can't even temporarily get
> the topmost cell's top edge to misalign with the viewport top --- whereas
> with all other content I've ever seen, even content that snaps, snapping
> happens after the gesture ends so you don't lose the sensation of the
> content tracking the thumb (or more importantly, your finger, for touch
> interfaces). For this reason, on the Web spreadsheets are implemented using
> crazy hacks where the spreadsheet content is in an element that's not
> scrolled directly by the scrollbar. (I've always wondered why spreadsheets
> behave this way; it doesn't seem to add any usability, and it makes
> thumb-dragging or touch-dragging scrolling feel worse. I suspect it's just
> tradition.)

My earlier proposals for scroll-snapping (as part of my Touch-Based
Animation Scrubbing proposal) allowed for this mode of operation.  If
it was put into this model, it'd just be a new value of
scroll-snap-type.

I do agree that it's rather terrible UI.

~TJ

Received on Monday, 3 March 2014 22:20:03 UTC