dial
Languages and libraries
ui component
SHOW HN2019
How HN took it
9 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 11 critical, out of 41 comments about the project. Thread score -0.05.
Design: 1 for, 6 againstExecution: 2 for, 3 againstIdea: 4 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clever and fun, nostalgic for rotary phones
From 3 comments
Clever - I like it. But the key thing that made rotary dials usable was the catch at the end - it stopped your finger, so you just pushed until it stopped you, and it registered…
codingdave on HNThis is great. You gotta add audio to deliver those sweet, satisfying sounds!
xwowsersx on HNI like it.
thescribbblr on HN
Objections
Dragging is too precise; the dial should keep rotating when the mouse leaves the control
From 3 comments
Clever - I like it. But the key thing that made rotary dials usable was the catch at the end - it stopped your finger, so you just pushed until it stopped you, and it registered…
codingdave on HNBad ux for mouse. It shouldn't stop accepting input if your mouse goes outside the donut.
emilfihlman on HNAdditionally make the drag a lot more forgiving. After all, the rotary dial guides the finger around the circle. To emulate that, people should be able to drag in a very…
_nalply on HN
Does not work on some touch devices and browsers
From 3 comments
Nice idea! I'm a bit sad though that this doesn't appear to work on touchscreens, isn't that sortof the point? (tried in Edge and Firefox, win10)
skrebbel on HNLive demo doesn't seem to work on iPad (using Chrome)
arthurcolle on HNHm, odd. Maybe it has some `if desktop then disable touch handlers` kind of code somewhere. note to coders: don't do that, lots of laptops have touchscreens :-)
skrebbel on HN
Number wobbles while rotating
From 1 comment
It looks like you have some numerical instability causing the numbers to wobble as they rotate.
ebg13 on HN
Requests
Add a finger stop so the dial halts at the chosen digit
From 3 comments
Clever - I like it. But the key thing that made rotary dials usable was the catch at the end - it stopped your finger, so you just pushed until it stopped you, and it registered…
codingdave on HNIf you click on a number and start to spin, that number should be the furthest you can take it, because your virtual finger is in that hole.
reificator on HNMake the rotate based on mouse move in any direction (i.e. there will be no reverse rotate). Make the rotate limited to emulate the finger catch. Then its perfect.
nobrains on HN
Add dial sound effects
From 2 comments
The other thing that made rotary dials hypnotic was the sound effect. Would be a nice enhancement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pIw9xyDQkY
asimjalis on HNThis is great. You gotta add audio to deliver those sweet, satisfying sounds!
xwowsersx on HN
Questions
Is localization needed for different dialing digit orders?
From 1 comment
Interestingly (or perhaps annoyingly) enough, the placement of the 0 was different in different countries. At least in Sweden the first digit was 0, and not 1 as in this…
jfries on HN
Alternatives named
Thomas Park's rotary input project
From 1 comment
Agreed, it's like the principle of Fitt's Law and screen edges having infinite width. I made a version a little while back that takes this into account:…
thomaspark on HN
Peter Szerzo's rotary phone project
From 1 comment
That's correct, I chimed in with a rotary phone input https://twitter.com/jmcfreeman/status/724012572861718528 but I literally just built this project…
jammaloo on HN
Android and BlackBerry time pickers
From 2 comments
Android's 'time picker' sounds very much like the blackberry version you describe. https://i.stack.imgur.com/60z61.png
treerock on HNIt does have similarities, but is still more complicated - BB simply had one watchface view where you'd set the time for alarms with minute accuracy just by dragging around a…
alpaca128 on HN