I keep getting quite a lot of positive feedback about my #MastodonBirdUI. Even @Gargron liked my post where I explained the design choices made. Thank you everyone so much about the input. I'm kinda surprised so many prefer mine over the default. I lost count in how many instances enabled it for all their users.
I've been thinking about rewriting the Mastodon base SCSS. I'm a CSS/SCSS guy after all. The new base framework would have
CSS variables instead of SCSS variables with SCSS function modifications: Easier to manage
Simpler style base: Less nesting, less hacks, less everything: Cleaner code
Better and more efficient modularization
Accessible and flexible SVG graphics instead of icon fonts like Font Awesome
However, it would be a lot of work. I created my version of the UI in a couple of weeks, then been improving it daily.
Worth noting is that not everyone prefers this choice of design as it's way too close to a site we all hate. That's why I'm afraid if I do all the work and send a PR, it would go in vain. It could still be a good start though.
I have high hopes for #Mastodon to improve the UI themselves and look forward to it to get better over time. I just have ideas. Will keep the choices open here.
@rolle Doing a refactoring which would make the underlying code cleaner and more maintainable without coupling it with (at least many) visible changes sounds to me like a great boon to everyone interested in working with the UI!
I don’t know what the PR practice with Mastodon is, but it would probably be possible to test the waters with a couple of smaller improvements first instead of a massive rewrite?
@tero Yes it can be done piece by piece, I have a local development instance and a fork of my own already. But it's still a lot more work than in a single CSS file.
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