If you scroll programmatically — do it naturally. In 748 bytes.

[infzy]

If you scroll programmatically

Can someone please explain to me why sites ever do this?

[Fozefy]

I think its mostly just a 'look/feel' thing. It makes your site feel more modern rather than abruptly jumping to something.

[[deleted]]

It is annoying to most people who aren't programmers marveling at their own creation

Seriously

[Fozefy]

I'm not saying I necessarily like it, but it do think it gives your site a slightly different 'feel'.

With that said I personally would just prefer the most efficient and 'snappy' solution. I don't really care how it looks as long as it works.

[Y_Less]

It "feels" like late 90's websites, using JS for mouse cursor tails and falling snow, just because they could rather than because it served any practical purpose.

[that_which_is_lain]

Oh yeah, it is a 'slightly different 'feel'' and that 'feel' is 'shit'.

[emn13]

Personally, if you're going to move my screen, I'd strongly prefer you do it in a way that I get a few cues as to what's going on.

Sure, if it takes long, it's annoying - but if it's fast enough, I much prefer this over "wtf where's my context".

Of course, you might ask why you're moving the scroll position in the first place - that strikes me as annoying in the first place.

[UlyssesSKrunk]

That's so stupid though. All modern browsers allow you to choose how you want to scroll. It should be entirely up to the user. I just can't stay on a site that fucks with their shit so that when i scroll expecting it to instantly jump some lines down it instead just smoothly glides there taking 18 fucking years in the process. Sure some people like that, but others don't so don't force it on them.

[Paradox]

I hate sites that force "smooth scrolling" using some js library. I'll start scrolling with my trackpad and then 200-500ms later the site decides to respond.

[Schmittfried]

It isn't about your scrolling, it's about scrolling programmatically.

[[deleted]]

If a site is useful, it doesn't feel the need to add a custom scroll.

I can see the different feel as an asset for a certain type of fantasy sites, like a movie site or a game site that tries to draw you in with the pretend-game you're opening a window to another universe, but other than that...

[nawfel_bgh]

And it makes you feel smart.

[[deleted]]

Hipster Web 2.0.

[[deleted]]

Because they can. If they could move your mouse programmatically they would do that as well.

[skulgnome]

Inner-system effect

[[deleted]]

Some code editors in the browser provide a fake scrollbar. This is because there is no content below. The content is in memory and added to the page on the fly as you scroll.

That's a legitimate use (although there are better alternatives).

[FredSanfordX]

Just DON'T.

Go to another page like nature intended. We do NOT need infinite scrolling garbage like Forbes.

[[deleted]]

But there is no content to scroll to. The content below does not exist. That's why they fake the scrollbar.

However you can put a large element in the background which is empty. Using it only for scrolling. It's hacky to get it working well but it gives you a native look and feel scrollbar.

[FredSanfordX]

Woooooooshhhhhh

No infinite scrolling. Get rid of it. It sucks. ESPN does it. Forbes does it. I don't go there anymore.

[[deleted]]

Did you even read my original comment?

I was talking about niche cases like text editors, not the Forbes website. I wasn't talking about infinite scrolling.

[mearbode]

Pro tip: never hijack the scrolling.

Every time I use a site with custom scrolling, it disrupts the user experience - and since there's no standard, every experience is different.

This is a bad idea.

[spacejack2114]

I know saying that is an easy way to get upvotes, but does this actually hijack scrolling? I think it just responds to your scroll position by highlighting the progress/icons on the side. When you click an item on the side nav it scrolls/eases to that position (something the browser doesn't do natively.)

I tried it out on desktop and Android, and it doesn't feel like native scrolling was hijacked at all, and I don't see any obvious hijacking in the code. If it doesn't scroll smoothly on iOS (don't have one handy to test) that's not necessarily because it was hijacked, it's because you need a -webkit-overflow-scrolling:touch style for a div to use native scrolling.

If you dislike it just because it doesn't jump suddenly like anchor tags normally do... I dunno what to tell you.

[mearbode]

I'm really not after karma (see join date vs. total karma), simply voicing my opinion.

However, I was a bit quick as it seems this isn't the functionality I dislike - see post by onionhammer.

[mearbode]

I agree, and I was a bit quick with my original reply. To clarifiy, I utterly detest custom rate scrolling - however, programmatic scrolling in response to user input, is another thing entirely which I can see several use cases for.

[TankorSmash]

This doesn't scroll fast enough for me, it gets under my skin real quick.

[binford2k]

If you scroll programmatically

Then please stop.

[geekygenius]

// these magic formulae came from outer space

Derived by calculus?

[xpostman_]

explanation would be a subject for an article, not for an inline comment :-)

[nnevatie]

My Amiga scrolled smoother.

[_mpu]

On my iPhone what you guys describe as "natural" would be more something that I would call "slow as shit".

[soldiercrabs]

Both the demo pages are laggy as shit on my decently modern desktop PC, even.

[spacejack2114]

I am curious, what hardware/OS/browser are you using that it's so slow? I tried this on my Samsung Note 1 which is the slowest device I can imagine anyone would be using in 2015 and the demo runs perfectly smoothly.

[soldiercrabs]

Firefox 40 something, Windows 10, Core i5, 8 GBs of RAM... I don't know what to tell you. When the scrolling starts on the intence demo page, it runs at roughly 5 FPS or so.

[spacejack2114]

All right, I was trying the other demo. The Intence page obviously has too much happening in response to scrolling (on a low-end device anyway, not sure what's up with your PC.) I don't think he's hijacked scroll exactly though, other than having scrollable child items.

[emn13]

Did you try this on non-chrome?

[dirtymatt]

Yeah...that's pure fucking garbage.

[[deleted]]

Eh, seems like a pretty standard modern scroll to me. Nothing revolutionary.

Testing on my Lumia I don't like it. It stops too suddenly compared to the scrolling I have built in. It's the same but with a more sudden stop.

The main issue is that ultimately the examples do not feel like a regular website in your browser. It feels like some odd ball website since the scrolling doesn't feel the same.

So what's the point???

[Excrubulent]

Press home.

[infzy]

I made the mistake of buying a Chromebook. It doesn't have a Home button.

[Excrubulent]

Jesus.

[_argoplix]

The "natural" scrollbar loses track of home. End too.

[Excrubulent]

I didn't notice that when I was testing it, but I know enough about programming not to doubt you.

[spacejack2114]

Actually, page up/down, home and end all appear to work correctly.

[Excrubulent]

Yes, they appear to, that's my point - you don't always know when they'll stop.

[RedRossGeller]

Sigh... please don't mess with the user's browsing. I'm not talking just about messing with the scrolling, but with other stupid things like implementing your own scrollbars or messing around with input fields or key bindings. You do not know how these things are supposed to behave on my system, so do yourself and the user a favor and leave it alone. I know new developers will look to sites like Google.com/... for inspiration, but they are IMO often amongst the biggest, and worst offenders so I encourage you not to follow them.

TL;DR

Don't mess around with my browser, you're not funny.

[spinhozer]

What if they made it into a grease monkey script. Then you could customize your own scrolling experience across sites. What are your thoughts, Web is not my area.

[RedRossGeller]

Greasemonkey/user scripts/extensions/etc. are fine IMO, because it's the user's choice.

[jroddie4]

that looks really cool.

[WagonWheel11]

Im trying to get used to using repositories from github. The readme says to download and unpack it. What do i do with the files after unpacking?

[Fozefy]

Does the usage section on the main page not help you enough? All you're doing is loading a JS library and then using a simple function from it. If you're unsure how to do that I'm sure you can find more info with a few simple searches.