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Comment by mintplant | Hacker News Reader

All the time. I would say at least 50% of my code browsing is done from my phone. I make heavy use of the mobile GitHub web interface for this (find-references support has been a godsend, search is still meh, I hate how they keep breaking basic find-in-page with SPA jank). Also Searchfox [0] when I need to comb through Firefox code (fast, excellent, no complaints—well, I guess blame on mobile could be better).

Context: grad student, programming languages and systems research plus a bunch of IoT hacking on my own time. Either elder Gen Z or youngest possible Millennial, depending where you put the cutoff.

[0] https://searchfox.org

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Yeah, I can't say enough bad things about the Github refresh. The whole thing feels like it was done by people who've never used git (or any SCM) before. It's not just the find-in-page, it's the navigating branches, text selection, keyboard navigation within a page, and general rendering performance that have taken a huge hit. And, of course, all the side effects of requiring javascript to render text.

Why are you so often in situations where you want to browse code but don’t have access to a general-purpose computer?

I do it when I want to separate out the thinking/understanding from the doing. I might want to mull over how to do something instead of jumping straight into coding, and I find train journeys an excellent opportunity for this. Or sometimes I want to assess dependencies, perhaps I want to choose a library for doing X, I can sit and read through them on my phone and at least get a feel for them and whittle the list down.

Oh that's a good way to put it! I do this as well, especially on commutes or on walks, but sometimes on the couch as well; I have an idea and think about it actively, but to continue my thought process, I have to look at some code, so I open it on the phone.

It always felt weird to get my laptop and look on the "big" screen in those situations, and maybe it's because I just want to think, not to code.

I've looked at libraries on github during the commute from links in newsletters.

But never done any serious work off a phone, bar irl device testing for "hand feel" of the UI/UX

Can't imagine reading code on those tiny screens.

And this is why you should stick to an 80 column limit.

It's only a pain when you decide your codebase is fine with 120+ columns because "everyone has a widescreen monitor" except no they don't. What if I like vertical monitors, or want 5:4 etc.

Having to cater to the absolute lowest common denominator holds back progress. Why should I be forced to adapt your preferred workflow and limitations if I prefer to have a wide-screen monitor or another standard tool.

> Having to cater to the absolute lowest common denominator holds back progress.

Market decided wide screen is better on pc, you blindly followed. Market decided that isn't the case on any mobile platform which in case you missed it vastly out numbers pc.

There was never an argument about whether wide screen is better or not, only that larger column counts make it harder to read your code.

Using obscure single letter variable names also make your code harder to read, is using decent variable names catering to thw lowest common denominator as well, is that a bad thing? Are we holding back progress because we use descriptive names for things?

Make your case about column width, there are valid arguments for longer widths. "Because wide screen is better" isn't one I will accept, last I check no other written media prefers being printed in landscape.

Without implying whether one position or the other is stronger, I want to point out that even when you're on a wide screen it's not uncommon to take advantage of that and have at least two screens side by side.

You are assuming too much about me without having a single clue.

>"What if I like vertical monitors, or want 5:4 etc."

Your choice. Mine - not to work on cell phone. This might change if they will stop crippling smartphones and let it to be hooked to a decent monitors / (future high quality display glasses)

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