
Smooth CoffeeScript - NARKOZ
http://autotelicum.github.com/Smooth-CoffeeScript/SmoothCoffeeScript.html
======
blehn
Ok hackers, listen up...

I know you love your fluid-width layouts, but just because you can fill the
entire window with content, doesn't mean you have to. Blocks of text become
difficult to read (and also ugly) when lines get to a certain length. The rule
of thumb is that about 60-80 characters per line is comfortable. On my
display, this site has about 250 characters per line and it makes me want to
hit the back button. Yes, I can use Readability, but that strips out the code
formatting. Simple fix: put a containing div around your content, and set a
max-width on that container.

See Jashkenas's work for examples of well-formatted technical writing:

<http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/>

[http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-
script/documentation/docs...](http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-
script/documentation/docs/grammar.html)

Anyway, looks like a nice resource. Thanks for sharing.

~~~
ericmoritz
Just shrink your window if you want 80 chars per line, jeez.

~~~
inconditus
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the parent was offering advice for
accessibility to help the member's of the community improve on their projects.
Why would you disapprove of that?

~~~
ars
I personally hate when sites make the text narrow. If I want the text narrow,
I shrink the browser. (Which I never actually do BTW.)

So to me the advice makes things worse, not better. 60-80 chars per line????
Even my email is wider than that. Go for at least 200.

~~~
dextorious
Sure, for some reason standard typographic practice and tons of readability
tests that show the need for narrower lines don't apply to you especially.

~~~
ars
And? I think it's a lot more people than you realize - at the moment my
comment has 7 points, and that's despite getting downmodded a few times.

This stuff with narrow lines may have been tested on poor readers perhaps? I
don't know. All I know is I hate narrow lines - and I especially hate them on
websites.

~~~
dextorious
I mostly attribute it to self-delusion.

Also, none of those 7 even did a proper A/B/A test on what they claim --while
the counter-example is well shown in tons of tests.

------
rgarcia
Someone needs to make something like Eloquent Javascript [1] for CoffeeScript.
The digital version of Eloquent JS has a console at the bottom so you can do
the exercises without leaving the page. It sounds minor but when I was first
learning javascript this solved a huge pain point.

[1] <http://eloquentjavascript.net/chapter1.html>

~~~
jashkenas
Love the irony. This book _is_ a (heavily altered) version of Marijn's
Eloquent JavaScript ... rewritten for CoffeeScript. As an aside, it's a pretty
amazing demonstration of what releasing your work under a Creative Commons
license can bring about.

It's a great suggestion. @autotelicum -- have you considered adding a little
interactive console to the page?

~~~
autotelicum
Of course. It started with a pdf/lyx version based on the 400Kb eloquent text
file, now the tools (elyxer) made it possible to convert to html with some
manual fixes. It would be great to add interactivity next. Not sure when next
will be though...

------
autotelicum
I made this version. It would be great with 'Pull Request's with the kind of
improvements that is being suggested here. The source is at
[https://github.com/autotelicum/Smooth-
CoffeeScript/tree/gh-p...](https://github.com/autotelicum/Smooth-
CoffeeScript/tree/gh-pages)

I would also like to know if the 'Send to Kindle' readability function results
in a readable document. That was the reason for making this version.

A pdf version, a quick reference and a JavaScript supplement is on the web
site at <http://autotelicum.github.com/Smooth-CoffeeScript/>

~~~
swanson
I'm waiting to receive it on my Kindle through the Send to Kindle button -
I'll report back if and when I get it.

Edit: Okay got it - was really easy to setup with the Readability button.
Flipping though the book - the pictures at the start are fine, links open up
the browser correct, the prose portion is nicely formatted. The code snippets
are, sadly, pretty unreadable. Using the default font most of the lines wrap
and it becomes a mess (compounded by coffeescript indentations). Things were a
bit better on the Kindle Fire - but that's essentially a tablet browser and I
would just go directly to the website vs having it sent as a document.

~~~
luigi
I'll add that on my Kindle Fire, the code snippets were quite readable when
turning into landscape mode.

Not sure if the e-ink Kindles switch to landscape mode as easily.

~~~
swanson
Kindle3 has landscape, Kindle Touch does not.

------
latchkey
I'm a huge fan of CS (I'm spending about 10 hours a day in it right now for my
startup) and I like the simplicity of the actual CS documentation.

This is really nice, but a bit too 'deep' or 'tl;dr' for my personal tastes. I
was able to learn the basics really quickly and then started writing code and
learning more from there as I ran into things I didn't know how to do.

That said, anything to further the learning of CS is great in my book. Nice
job.

------
iamleppert
Maybe im a bit jaded, but self-important manifesto style stuff like this,
complete with Confucius quotes generally turn me off.

