votes, sorts, replies

Mark Twain

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Confucius

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Benjamin Franklin

Well done is better than well said.

Buzz Aldrin

Long one, sorry. Every comment system I've used fails the same three ways:

Folding moves things. You collapse a thread and the line you were reading jumps.
Deep threads squeeze. Ten levels in, the text is a column of three words.
Long threads are slow. Four thousand replies, all in the DOM, on a phone.

Here the head stays put when it folds, past a depth the thread continues on its own, and past a page of replies the rest wait behind a button.

Which is the whole list.

lark

Number two is the one that gets me.

wren

The j and k keys are a nice touch.

tern

Folding without the jump is underrated.

lark

Collapsed by default past a page is the right call.

ibis

Bookmarking this.

lark

Does that hold for a comment section too? It feels like the one thing every site rebuilds from scratch.

adrian

It does. The parts are already here, which is the point of composing it:

the face is avatar, the time relative-time
the words markdown, the standing vote or reactions
the reply box editor, the keys key-router

Nothing in it draws its own button.

wren

And the tree? Building one from flat rows is where mine always went wrong.

adrian

A lib, no React in it:

const thread = buildThread(posts, { sort: "top" })
thread.roots // sorted, each with its replies and their count

Posts come oldest first, so a parent is always known before its replies.

tern

What happens with a cycle?

adrian

It can't be written: a reply that names a parent listed after it is refused, with the reason.

kite

Short and sweet.

wren

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Long one, sorry. Every comment system I've used fails the same three ways:

Folding moves things. You collapse a thread and the line you were reading jumps.
Deep threads squeeze. Ten levels in, the text is a column of three words.
Long threads are slow. Four thousand replies, all in the DOM, on a phone.

Here the head stays put when it folds, past a depth the thread continues on its own, and past a page of replies the rest wait behind a button.

Which is the whole list.

Collapsed by default past a page is the right call.

lark

Does that hold for a comment section too? It feels like the one thing every site rebuilds from scratch.

adrian

It does. The parts are already here, which is the point of composing it:

the face is avatar, the time relative-time
the words markdown, the standing vote or reactions
the reply box editor, the keys key-router

Nothing in it draws its own button.

wren

And the tree? Building one from flat rows is where mine always went wrong.

adrian

A lib, no React in it:

const thread = buildThread(posts, { sort: "top" })
thread.roots // sorted, each with its replies and their count

Posts come oldest first, so a parent is always known before its replies.

tern

What happens with a cycle?

adrian

It can't be written: a reply that names a parent listed after it is refused, with the reason.