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98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

(jdan.github.io)
838 points bennettfeely | 7 comments | 21 Apr 20 23:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.277s | source | bottom
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atum47 ◴[22 Apr 20 04:30 UTC] No.22942201[source]▶
that's really gorgeous. I find windows 95 aesthetics a master piece. I'm not gonna lie, I thought about windows 95 when I was creating FOS, my Fake Operational System "framework".

I'm thinking about refactoring it and I'll may incorporate windows color scheme to it. Here's the link if you wanna see what I am talking about.

https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fos

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Scapeghost ◴[22 Apr 20 09:31 UTC] No.22943744[source]▶
I don't know, Windows 95 looked crude even during its day. Functional, but not pleasant. I guess Brutalist would be the term? As soon as there was the ability to skin it, people tried to veer away the default look, with Mac-like styles being a common alternative.

People probably have rose-tinted nostalgia for the 95 era because of the nightmare that followed: Windows XP :)

replies(2): >>22943937 #>>22944687 #
djsumdog ◴[22 Apr 20 09:58 UTC] No.22943937[source]▶
95 and XP both had good scroll bars. XP styling was pretty good for its era. Modern day scroll bars are atrocious on a lot of toolkits.
replies(2): >>22944103 #>>22944173 #
chrisseaton ◴[22 Apr 20 10:44 UTC] No.22944173[source]▶
Now that we have touch gestures we don’t really need visible scroll bars anymore do we? Just the little position indicator that pops up while scrolling.
replies(2): >>22944257 #>>22944686 #
worble ◴[22 Apr 20 10:58 UTC] No.22944257[source]▶
What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first?

What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll?

What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

replies(1): >>22944293 #
chrisseaton ◴[22 Apr 20 11:06 UTC] No.22944293[source]▶
There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car.

We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

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Symbiote ◴[22 Apr 20 11:28 UTC] No.22944426[source]▶
Knowing how long a document is, and whereabouts your current view is, seems pretty fundamental.

You may as well argue against page numbers in books.

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1. Scapeghost ◴[22 Apr 20 11:32 UTC] No.22944446[source]▶
> You may as well argue against page numbers in books.

Actually, yes, when was the last time you looked at a page number in an e-book? They don't make sense anyway when you can resize the reader.

replies(2): >>22944799 #>>22945008 #
2. ZoomZoomZoom ◴[22 Apr 20 12:27 UTC] No.22944799[source]▶
Actually, they very much do:

1. As a relative marker of a current position.

2. As an absolute number when your ebook/reader screws up saving its state.

replies(1): >>22946216 #
3. Minor49er ◴[22 Apr 20 12:57 UTC] No.22945008[source]▶
>Actually, yes, when was the last time you looked at a page number in an e-book? Every time I read an ebook, I look at the page numbers. I would be frustrated without knowing where I am or how much longer I have to go
4. Scapeghost ◴[22 Apr 20 14:58 UTC] No.22946216[source]▶
1. Is solved by "N Pages left in chapter" which is more useful than "Page N"

2. There is no "absolute number" of pages on a e-reader app or device because the window or font size can change, changing all the page numbers. You can have 100 pages or 200 pages.

replies(1): >>22947958 #
5. ZoomZoomZoom ◴[22 Apr 20 17:23 UTC] No.22947958{3}[source]▶
1. It's also solved by X/Y where X: page number, Y: total pages.

2. Most users read from fullscreen readers on their phones or ebooks, so the window size doesn't really change. I also strongly advice setting on a font for a particular book and stick to it. From my POV (unbacked by science) it helps with recall. If you don't change the font or other layout settings, the "pages" retain their numeration.

replies(1): >>22953328 #
6. Scapeghost ◴[23 Apr 20 06:21 UTC] No.22953328{4}[source]▶
> 1. It's also solved

So you agree that there's an alternative solution to page numbers, but you want to go back to page numbers?

> 2. Most users read from fullscreen readers on their phones or ebooks, so the window size doesn't really change.

Font sizes can change, changing the number of pages.

replies(1): >>22954389 #
7. ZoomZoomZoom ◴[23 Apr 20 10:09 UTC] No.22954389{5}[source]▶
> So you agree that there's an alternative solution to page numbers, but you want to go back to page numbers? Yes, and I never had any reason to go away from them so I never did. > Font sizes can change, changing the number of pages. Fonts don't do it themselves, though.