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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

I discovered the other day that the mobile version of Wikipedia _while on desktop_ is AMAZING.

Check this out: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager

It's nicely justified for reading. Superfluous interface is almost entirely eliminated compared to desktop view. It's just such a clean, elegant view for reading a Wikipedia page.

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I totally agree!

This came up in a recent HN post so I published a user script I had written to automatically switch to the mobile version. You can also switch manually between mobile and desktop with ⌘ + M or ctrl-M. If you've switched to desktop and click on a link, it stays in desktop mode (it would be jarring otherwise if it kept flipping between modes). You can also edit the page with ⌘ + E or ctrl-E (opens in desktop mode since the mobile editor is pretty limited).

Install it here: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/431384-switch-to-mobile-wi...

You would also like simple wikis https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager Adding simple just brings information down to its bones, good for quick reference and easier understanding of harder topics https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics

for me, that's way worse, I much prefer to get full width, on my 32 inch monitor, it looks nicer on the default website, and fits way more stuff without needing to scroll. If I want a similar layout for "reading" I'll just use reader mode in the browser and get a very similar layout.

To each their own I guess, but to me you just described a terrible reading experience. Filling all available space with content may sound like a good idea on paper but columns of text should really limited in their width - that's just very basic and commonly agreed upon typography best practice.

except, that applies if you are reading something top to bottom, like a book. That's not what I do on wikipedia, I scan for information.... and it is much easier to do that in wide format. What you end up actually reading is a paragraph or two. As a speed reader, I read in chunks, and in wide format it's actually not that bad, its not a wall of text. Most paragraphs end up to be 3-4 lines long and are naturally chunked by citation notes. I find it really easy. There is no one rule of typography, there is general guidance, but context matters. If in your head you've translated that to a "rule", you are doing it wrong.

I used to agree until someone made me stop and assess what it’s like to read text on a wide screen vs. a narrow one.

It’s not even close anymore: reading is just so much easier when it’s a narrow column.

Wiki pages are like 95% text to read.

What they need to do is put the TOC on the collapsible sidebar.

I was skeptical but I just tried that and, yeah, it's actually pretty good on desktop.

if I had to read anything longer than few minutes I immediately go to the mobile view. Much easier on the eyes.

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