Writing text horizontally? Go 2D Like crosswords, demo for CSS/JS menu system

Writing text horizontally? Go 2D Like crosswords, demo for CSS/JS menu system(numtel.github.io)

3 points by numtel 30 days ago | 5 comments

vunderba 30 days ago |

Nice job. Bit of feedback:

- I’d recommend having the crossword grid take up the full screen. If there’s enough width and height, you could start the player in the middle. That would give it more of a feeling of unlimited bounds which feels more appropriate given the free-thinking theme

- For rotating between horizontal and vertical, consider using a single toggle key instead of two separate keys. That would make it faster to work with, especially if it’s something that doesn’t require moving to the function keys (something like Shift + Enter).

- You might also want to change the UI color or add a visual indicator so you can immediately tell which mode you’re in. Right now, it’s not clear whether you’re about to type vertically or horizontally.

numtel 30 days ago | |

That last point, yeah, I was thinking a status bar would be handy but now that I'm typing and thinking about it, maybe I'll just change the cursor color. That's enough of an indication and then no new ui elements need to be added.

The reason it's not a single key to toggle between vertical and horizontal is because I had imagined even more directions beyond those two, diagonal in all four ways etc... we'll see if I try those out xD

Regarding the center start position: that's a bit of a departure from a text editor. This demo is supposed to be like if notepad.exe magically grew another dimension. If the origin is the center then above and left if origin would be outside the document? It doesn't make sense to me.

Thank you for your awesome feedback!!!!

vunderba 30 days ago | | |

Yeah I totally see what you're saying. For me if I built a tool like this I would think of it more like the equivalent of "tensors meets mind-mapping node tool" - so the idea of growing multidimensionally from a center point feels more conceptually on-point. :)

numtel 30 days ago |

I woke up this morning with a dream to make a two-dimensional text editor that also componentized the Windows 98-style (codename: Memphis, don't you remember back then?) menu system I've been working on for a while.

So I've come up with this demo. The scrolling isn't 100% perfect on mobile, and the popup keyboard is miffed a bit but it's great on desktop.

Super fun way to put the brain into crossword/Scrabble mode and play around with thoughts interconnecting in new ways. Then rotate and see it from the other angle.

There's CSS rules in the stylesheet for dialogs too but the demo does not use them.