

Famo.us So Far: Field Guide for April 2014 - AdrianRossouw
http://wayfinder.co/pathways/53590e64ed05bf290026366f/famo-us-so-far-field-guide-for-april-2014

======
AdrianRossouw
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] .

\---

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

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

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

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

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

\---

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.

\---

[6] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23140046/what-is-the-
best...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23140046/what-is-the-best-pattern-
for-responsive-apps-in-famo-us)

\---

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.

~~~
dmvaldman
:-)

We'll be around for a while. Launches are hard, but well-crafted technology is
a long play. I'm glad you've been experimenting and seeing past the good/bad
hype.

We'll always be striving to make our platform better, I hope all of our users
feel comfortable expressing their opinions and directly contributing to the
project via GitHub. Famo.us is more yours than it is ours now.

