Wrapping Code Samples on Mobile Devices
One part of being a technical blogger that I've had to come to grips with is code samples and small mobile device screens. I was amazed when I saw a double-digit percentage of visits to this blog were from mobile phones -- mental! I started paying more attention to detail on said devices and I realized that code samples required loads of horizontal scrolling: yuck. By utilizing CSS white-space, we can make code wrap and avoid arm-numbing scrolling on small screens:
pre {
white-space: pre-line;
}
I like using PrismJS so that requires a different selector:
pre[class*='language-'], code[class*='language-'] {
white-space: pre-line;
}
Thankfully white-space lets me help you all avoid horizontal scrolling on mobiles. Of course you'll need to choose which media query you want to apply that to, but I'll let you do that. In some cases it may be difficult to read the line-broken code, but that's surely better than all that crazy scrolling.
![9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos]()
As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us. Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos. Another technology available...
![Create a Sheen Logo Effect with CSS]()
I was inspired when I first saw Addy Osmani's original ShineTime blog post. The hover sheen effect is simple but awesome. When I started my blog redesign, I really wanted to use a sheen effect with my logo. Using two HTML elements and...
![Create a Twitter AJAX Button with MooTools, jQuery, or Dojo]()
There's nothing like a subtle, slick website widget that effectively uses CSS and JavaScript to enhance the user experience. Of course widgets like that take many hours to perfect, but it doesn't take long for that effort to be rewarded with above-average user retention and...
![Custom Scrollbars in WebKit]()
Before each of the browser vendors we like was providing unique CSS controls, Internet Explorer was setting the tone. One such example is IE's early implementation of CSS filters. Internet Explorer was also the first browser that allowed developers to, for better or worse, customize...
I’m also using PrismJS. Any tips to get the line-numbers to adjust?
Also, by default tab size is about 4 i believe, this snippet brings it back a little…
// @media query here for small screens... pre{ webkit-tab-size: 2; -moz-tab-size: 2; -ms-tab-size: 2; -o-tab-size: 2; tab-size: 2; }That is, assuming you’ve got tabs over spaces (which you should of course).
Interesting post. I have thought about this for quite some time. The thing is that code is much more readable, in my opinion, when not wrapping it like this.
Since we are used to large screens, reading wrapped code like this is hard and unfamiliar. We do not code on small screens and therefor it makes more sense to scroll horizontally when viewing code then to force line breaking/wrapping.
No offense, but I would rather go with all the crazy scrolling. I honestly think it looks nicer than the broken up code, and it is easier to read and understand code samples.