

Making Love to Webkit - robert-boehnke
http://acko.net/blog/making-love-to-webkit/

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moe
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should".

The end-result is a terrible experience for me. The scrolling is extremely
jaggy even after the 3d-fluff has scrolled out of the viewport.

And the initial view with the skewed text is about as functional as those
flash websites that were famous in the 90s...

~~~
taf2
I think it's maybe just a bit early? You need at least a beta chrome build for
it to work nicely - so stable should be nice in a few weeks... You're right
though it's a little extreme, but imagine the type of data visualizations we
have in store in the next few years on the web. This is really cool IMO...

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tomelders
runs smooth for me on Safari OS X.

And I really like it... but....

It's style over substance and reminds me of the bad old days when Flash
polluted every website with something snazzy but superfluous.

I don't really know how to phrase what I'm thinking. It's good to try new
things, especially with stuff like CSS3 and WebGL on the horizon. But it's bad
to just shoot things down. While I don't think for a second that you're
promoting 3d transforms as something that everyone should be using for
everything... some people out there really will latch onto it as a "cool
thing" and abuse it. Which isn't your fault, it's just the way the world
works.

So in summary. Awesome, love it! But I hope CSS3 doesn't become the new Flash.

~~~
gurkendoktor
I think the question is: Is it content that I still want to access in a few
years?

For example, Facebook with its terrible URLs and JavaScript everywhere is very
fragile. Hard to cache, hard to archive, but who cares? If the whole site went
bankrupt in ten years, would many people actually export their data? Or a blog
on Rails, where every article becomes obsolete after a year. Or a restaurant
website. Those sites can use all the magic they want.

But if you write about mathematics or art or other things that should pass the
test of time, please make it bare-bones, semantic HTML. If I really like it, I
can just archive it and show it to my children later. It's like using hover
for menus, who'd guessed that this would break for millions of devices one
day?

~~~
unconed
So... did it load fast? Was the content readable, selectable and natively
scrollable? Did I break any of your regular habits, like 'back' or 'open in
new tab' or copy/pasting links? Did you get a good sense of the site's
contents and purpose from your first visit? Does everything remain accessible
if you turn off JavaScript?

It's like everyone assumes nobody but them knows how to make websites.

~~~
gurkendoktor
My apologies - this site is indeed a masterpiece. The usability is much better
than most _HTML_ websites, no need to mention Flash.

But in the sense in which HTML5 is going to replace Flash, I am pessimistic
that many websites will go to the same lengths. And where there is more code,
there are more possibilities to break in the future.

To be nitpicky about usability of newfangled stuff: Using web fonts disables
the built-in dictionary on OS X, both in Safari and in Chrome. (I am so happy
that this is one thing Facebook has not yet embraced.)

~~~
unconed
I don't disagree, but I think this is a void easily fixed with the right
libraries and frameworks. Remember the web before jQuery? You couldn't get
most developers to touch JS with a ten foot pole...

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jayroh
Guys, I think a lot of you are missing the point. The purpose of this, I
believe, is somewhat akin to climbing Mt Everest. It's there, he wanted to see
if he could do it. He did it.

Comparing this to flash, or arguing why it doesn't work in X browser, or why
it's bad UX or - is _completely_ off base.

It's "cool". He's experimenting. That's it.

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a2tech
Thats disgustingly good. Its amazingly smooth (at least on Chrome on OS X)

~~~
hswolff
What channel are you on? I'm on Stable and the site moves very slow for me. On
the other hand it runs smooth as silk on Safari. (OS X 10.7.2)

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asmosoinio
OS X 16.0.912.75 here, running smoothly, until I tested the Konami-code
version and had also the 3D-editor activated.

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thesash
Despite concerns about compatibility, usability, and future accessibility,
this project is ridiculously awesome simply because it pushes the boundary of
what's possible in the browser. Bold strokes like this are what move
technology forward.

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pbhjpbhj
Ran for me on Kubuntu (linux distro) using Chrome; but not on any of my other
browsers nor on several browsers on WinXP under vbox. Changing page in Chrome
crashed the browsers and completely filled my 2GB of swap, which is a first,
usually swap is barely used.

Description of the working page/site:

The top half of the page is a series of colored streamers and the site title,
giving a feel of the old "pipes" screensaver on MS Windows. A regular page
view is presented towards the bottom right of the initial screen-area but
tilted in perspective with the top-left corner away and the right edge towards
the viewport. As one scrolls down the perspective view of the streamers alters
and the page view moves in perspective until it is flat, square-on, to the
viewport. It gives the feeling, to me, of moving underneath the title area in
a more 3D way.

Hope that helps anyone, who was perhaps searching around to get a look at this
thing, to decide if they want to see it or not. There's probably a screencap
on YouTube ...

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BonoboBoner
Freaking amazing.

My only issue with css transforms is how unfamiliar the world of
transforming/scaling/rotating/animating/etc is to the average web developer
despite studying the basics of computer graphics. Whenever I look at the
source, I feel like it has been written to never be read or understood again.

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richardw
"when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than
ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create."

\- _why the lucky stiff

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zobzu
Seems to love Gecko just fine as well - except it doesn't render anything
correctly :-)

Ah the days when the web was standardized.. were.. really, really short.

~~~
andrewflnr
I thought 3D CSS was a standard.

~~~
magicalist
it is (well, in working draft) and 3d transforms are working in Firefox 10[1],
but not for this site.

The author mentions he wrote it to be forward compatible as Firefox and IE10
add support, but it plainly isn't doing anything in Firefox right now...I'm
curious if there's a reason or just a bug.

[1] [http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/10/css-3d-transformations-
in-f...](http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/10/css-3d-transformations-in-firefox-
nightly/)

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andreasklinger
Thanks for sharing.

Btw You are pushing limits and turning people off by it. To me that are
usually good signs, looks you are on to something with this approach.

I am pretty sure you just sparked a series of creative ideas coming up the
next weeks. Thanks for that!

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tommi
That site made love to my CPU, it got hot.

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mrpollo
I normally dont comment much here, but this made me came out of my cave to
type, Thanks for thinking out of the box, or at least showing me a new path to
follow, as a web developer I miss the old days of "Flashy and Tacky" websites
not because I miss flash, Its because of the innovation that drived that time,
we all know there are some bad examples and bad implementations but when the
project is right Its well worth it.

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yalooze
The concept is cool. However, I find the 'klavika-web' font quite hard to
read.

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simonw
This is a really classy demo. The scene editor (embedded in the post, don't
miss it) is a brilliant addition - really very impressive.

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veyron
Fails on my iPad. To be specific the first part of the page renders but
nothing more ...

~~~
emehrkay
It works on my ipad and the ios simulator (both with 5.x)

<http://i.imgur.com/YDP3a.png>

Crazy thing is that it doesnt do the smooth bounce scrolling.

~~~
veyron
ipad2 on ios4. I guess they upgraded safari in ios 5

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burgerbrain
"Move camera: _Ctrl_ \+ _W_ A S D"

...Uncool.

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mattdeboard
I said "Wow" out loud then started sharing the link to your site. It would be
an overstatement to call it "breathtaking", but only just barely.

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billpatrianakos
I love to see people taking things to the limit and would never harshly
criticize or discourage someone from doing something like this but there's a
big but coming...

But whenever you do something like this you have to be sure to test it on
enough browsers and devices to be sure the vast majority of your audience
won't be left with a bad taste in their mouth. Either that testing didn't
happen or it was decided that the negatives were worth it in this case. The
experience isn't good on iOS (iPhone _and_ iPad) and just a little better in
non-Webkit browsers. The scrolling is the big problem. It's okay for a minute
but soon it's annoyance become more and more prominent in your mind.

Anyway, this is really really awesome! Having the js backup was good thinking.
I hope it works out for the site. It's not something I'd use on a site with an
audience that was really important to me but not everyone has the same
priorities. In any case, besides the practical considerations, the effect
itself is very impressive. Kudos.

~~~
flyosity
But don't forget: the best thing about having a personal site is not having to
care what others think about it.

~~~
billpatrianakos
Right! I'd feel the same about my personal site. See, I'm not familiar with
the author so I'm not sure if it's appropriate. I think you have a point but
if you have a personal site that's highly trafficked and popular then this
might be a bad idea. _I_ could do something nuts like this but imagine if PG
did this to his site. I don't think he would. That's the kind of thing I'm
getting at.

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alexrbarlow
I love Tron

