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trafnar

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Show HN: My first interactive article – breakdown of a complex menu UI

nathanmanousos.com
28 points·by trafnar·3 वर्ष पहले·1 comments

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trafnar
·11 माह पहले·discuss
I wanted to suggest a tweak to this cool project: The panning and zooming feel very sluggish. I'm not sure if there's a technical reason it needs to be that way, but if the animation duration or spring used to control that can be made faster, it will feel much nicer to navigate around.
trafnar
·11 माह पहले·discuss
I was using this recently and found some situations where I didn't like the way the lines looked. Reading through the github comments from the author, it sounds like an improved version of this library is maintained within the tldraw codebase.
trafnar
·12 माह पहले·discuss
Their app listens to your calls and transcribes things. I think this visualizer helps indicate when it is actively listening.
trafnar
·पिछला वर्ष·discuss
It's still relevant, the language hasn't changed much since I made this course.
trafnar
·2 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Panda seems really nice. As someone who does a lot of "creative" CSS work, writing styles quickly is important to me. I find writing styles as Javascript objects kinda cumbersome. I wish there was a way to use Imba's CSS system within a React or other Javascript app. https://imba.io/docs/css/syntax

Imba allows you to write CSS anywhere in a component definition using CSS-like syntax (rather than Javascript object syntax).

The syntax for adding a quick inline style is so simple:

  <div [width:20px]>
You can even do hover states in an inline style:

  <div [color:red @hover:blue]>
And interpolation is easy too:

  <div [width:{someValue}px]>
Putting a CSS block at any level of your tag hierarchy scopes it to that tag.

  <div.foo>
    <div.bar>
      css color:red # this applies to div.bar
        em color:blue # this applies to div.bar em
      
      "hello"
      <em> "world"
CSS blocks declared in a component definition but outside of the markup, apply to the whole tag. CSS declared in a file, outside of a component definition, apply to all components defined in that file. There is also a global keyword to apply styles globally.

and there's a whole range of other useful features, a favorite of mind is the shorthand syntax for things like this:

  c:red # same as color:red
  d:vtc # same as display:flex flex-direction:column justify-content:center
  x:10px rotate:30deg # same as transform:translateX(10px), rotate(30deg)
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
In that case the count variable should be moved into a property of the tag. I just like putting it outside the tag because it really drives home "its just a variable".

   tag Counter
      count = 0
      <self @click=(count++)> "count: {count}"
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Yes, via https://www.todesktop.com/ which makes it very easy.
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
I’ve been building all my projects with Imba for the past few years, I love it.

- TaskTXT - Plain text todos and tasks with timers https://www.tasktxt.com

- ReadyRunner - GPT chat for desktop https://www.readyrunner.ai

- Chonky Menu Re-Creation - Breakdown of a fancy menu UI https://www.nathanmanousos.com/posts/chonky-menu

I’ve made several videos about Imba too:

- Building a counter in 49 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XS5q9xhaMc

- Video timeline UI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbKTEqmCAJM

- All of my Imba videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYxkh3w952l5cwxYLcCsd...

I made the (free) official course on Scrimba: https://www.imba.io/learn/imba

Which is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DcOgcCy7zs

I understand that Imba is not appropriate for everyone and every project but I encourage you not to dismiss it. One are where it is clearly valuable is in building prototypes and side projects.
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
I assume you are referring to the CSS shorthands Imba provides. Yes, they are controversial... and optional. These all work the same in imba:

  css div { background-color: red; display: flex; flex-direction: column; }
    div@hover {background-color:blue;}

  css div background-color: red display: flex flex-direction: column
    div@hover background-color: blue

  css div bgc:red @hover:blue d:vflex
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
You don't need any special state management tools like "stores" or "setState" you can just use regular variables.

  let count = 0
  tag Counter
    <self @click=(count++)> "Count is: {count}"
  imba.mount <Counter>, document.body
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Update: it works on Android now
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Thanks for the reminder.
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
I fixed the android issues, sorry about that
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
I'm not aware of any easier way to build something like this than what I presented in the article, but I'd be interested to learn if there was. I did create a full-fledged prototyping/animation tool called Flinto.com, but it can't quite do this interaction with all of its details
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Thanks for the motivating comment :)
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
I think I fixed the Android issues, can you give it another try?
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
What I like about Imba is that you can update a variable, and the result in the view/page is updated, without any special syntax.

  let count = 0

  def increment
    count++

  tag App
    <self>
      <button @click=increment> "Increment"
      <div> "Count: {count}"

  imba.mount <App>
Try this example here: https://scrimba.com/scrim/cpbmKzsq

(Imba is a compile-to-js language that includes JS/HTML/CSS and a react-like framework all as part of the language. https://www.imba.io)
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
It's not a true Astro integration, but Imba works with Vite, and I was able to use that to include Imba code in my Astro site. A real integration would allow for server-side rendering of Imba components, which would be great.
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Yeah, I totally get what you mean. I was focused on recreating the effects in original menu that this was inspired by, which was meant for mobile, so the context is very different.

If I was making something like this for use in a real desktop/web app, I'd certainly approach it differently.
trafnar
·3 वर्ष पहले·discuss
Thanks for understanding!