#mecomplaining

[normal-i5-boring]

I hate laying awake because I can't stop thinking about everything

[malectro]

The Sad, CSS Absurdity of fadeIn/fadeOut

In the UX world, I’m kindof an old timer. I remember when we did it all with jQuery and called it AJAX, even though AJAX has nothing to do with DOM manipulation or animations. Our dropdown menus would slideUp and slideDown like the tongues of helpful iguanas, and we’d spend hours slicing pngs to to make rounded corners in all the colors of the blueish rainbow.

Now I’m happy to write a few lines of CSS and leave JavaScript with the logic. I still use jQuery (mostly out of habit) but only invoke 10% of its methods. Things like slideUp and hide are easily accomplished with CSS analogues and with far less code.

But what about fadeIn and fadeOut, two of the most useful animations on a designer’s tool belt? I wrote it the other day, and it seemed easy enough.

.item { transition: opacity 0.2s; } .item.hide { display: none; opacity: 0; }

It's so simple. Add the hide class, and the item fades out – except it doesn't. Changing the display style of an element makes it skip any relevant transitions causing the opacity change to be immediate (and pointless). Turns out we have to do hack together a bunch of extra styles to get the desired effect, and the result isn't a good read.

.item { transition: opacity 0.2s, height 0; } .item.hide { opacity: 0; height: 0; overflow: hidden; transition: opacity 0.2s, height 0 0.2s; }

The explanation for why the rendering engine requires this is a fine one, and I won't go into it here. Others have. But I will point out how obtuse it is to make an extremely common effect, one that is easily accomplished with a single jQuery function call $('.item').fadeOut(), so difficult in a version of CSS that can otherwise recalculate measurements and even animate sprites with ease.

Why is this the only avenue in which we've crossed the median and made a U-turn? Am I missing something here?

[keeko2hope]

My dad just threw away my Valentine truffles my mom got for me because I hadn't eaten dinner (from getting home late from work) and he said I couldn't substitue a meal with chocolate. Note that I am twenty years old and can eat whatever the fuck I damn well please.

 I almost cried...not because I was really sad but because I cry when I get aggravated and how disrespectful is that? My mom bought those for me because I don't have anyone else to buy me chocolates and you're just going to snatch them out of my hands because you think I'm overweight and don't want me to eat them... go suck a fuck, dad. 

[rebelmel-lisa]

Me: *curls up in bed, yawns, closed eyes* 10 minutes later Me: *opens eyes groans, try's new sleeping position* Another 5 minutes Me: *sits up* fuck it. *grabs phone texts some people and starts to tumble.* Why can't I sleep! Why is this so hard? :( and of course I have to be up semi early. Ugh.

[lovekarel]

I really want to go to Crystal Fair in SF this weekend but 1) I have no money to spend on crystals and 2) Michael doesn't really want to go because he doesn't have any money either. This sucks because this is when they all come back from Sedona, AZ with all the yummy crystals. I want me some moonstone!!!!

[notyoungnotrenewable]

I literally have 0 coping mechanisms when it comes to stress despite a lot of money being spent on said issue and nothing works I'm just a SPOON

[princess-kumquat]

Rant time. So I went to the dentist, one of my least favorite places besides hospitals, and not only do I get the tooth cleaner thing stuck in my gum four times, but also I have to get three cavities filled. THREE. I do all of the things you're supposed to do, I even brush my teeth to the happy birthday song! Rant done.

[stardustgeneration]

I suffer from indecision paralysis.