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Show HN: Wikipedia Browser a La Andy Matuschak's Evergreen Notes

by steezeburger on 8/16/24, 4:35 AM with 49 comments

• by AlexErrant on 8/16/24, 1:41 PM

  I wonder if this-view-but-for-browser-tabs would be useful.

  E.g. instead of opening 4 google search links as tabs, you could just open one "to the side" and quickly go to the next link if it turns out to be SEO spam (and avoid a click to close-tab or back-buton).

• by dark-star on 8/16/24, 2:07 PM

  This reminds me of the old File Browser concept from NextSTEP/OpenSTEP (which, I think, was at some point also adopted by MacOS X).

  I could never get used to the "horizontal history" style of browsing anything.

  But I admit that for the Ultra Wide displays that are all the rage recently, this might be actually very workable

• by owenpalmer on 8/17/24, 5:36 AM

  Wow! It's great to see an Andy Matuschak related post. I've been checking out his content over the last week, and it's really inspiring.

  I've been theorizing a similar idea for browsing Wikipedia (or pdfs), except it's only two panels. One is the current page, and the other is a Obsidian-like node graph. As you click on links, words, terms, or phrases in the article, new nodes are created. These would be concepts you're unfamiliar with.

  This would build out a tree of ignorance, with an implicitly generated knowledge dependency graph, which you could systematically study.

  My goal is to be able to delve into highly advanced topics for which I have little background knowledge, building out a "syllabus" as I go.

• by throwup238 on 8/16/24, 11:32 PM

  Have you considered using Golden Layout [1] to implement infinite panels + tabs that can be dragged around?

  [1] https://golden-layout.com/

• by mrkramer on 8/16/24, 1:56 PM

  This type of browser mode would be good for reading 2 or 3 articles at the same time, instead of switching from tab to tab.

• by disqard on 8/16/24, 9:38 PM

  Thank you for making and sharing this!

  Do you envision it predominantly being used on a mobile device?

  I (personally) found it a bit "fiddly" to aim for the horizontal scrollbar with my mouse -- maybe I missed an easy-to-use mechanic here?

  In any case, I love this exploration of alternative browsing interfaces. Kudos to you for building this prototype!

• by nilirl on 8/16/24, 4:21 PM

  Really great job! I spent a good 10 minutes just clicking through links.

  The design encourages opening a new link but I wonder if the temptation distracts from reading a full piece. Still, loved it!

• by k2m on 8/16/24, 6:24 PM

  I use Arc Browser's split view though it's not as smooth. I hope they evolve and get closer to this UX eventually.

• by juliend2 on 8/16/24, 3:13 PM

  This is a nice UX experiment. What I'd like to see though, is the ability to choose whether the link opens in the current tile, or open on the right.

  IMO, this behavior should be the default on Web browsers when middle-clicking a link.

  Especially since people tend to have wide screens and websites don't always constrain text narrowly enough to make it readable.

• by hifikuno on 8/17/24, 6:31 AM

  I love this style of rabbit holing. I would love a way to view my code at work with this method. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

• by input_sh on 8/16/24, 1:19 PM

  I'd expect it to auto-focus on whatever pane is the newest one, but I have to manually scroll to the right to reach it?

• by 1kurac on 8/16/24, 8:08 PM

  Interesting concept, but also a great way to obtain zero browsing history on the topics you research.

• by greggsy on 8/16/24, 1:27 PM

  The Split View in edge does this, but it’s temperamental. Surprised this mode hasn’t taken off tbh.

• by sova on 8/16/24, 6:06 PM

  Super simple and super effective tool to learn about [somewhat random?] new topics quickly.

• by knowaveragejoe on 8/16/24, 3:44 PM

  I like this a lot, would be neat if you supported wikipedia's new dark mode.

• by a2dam on 8/16/24, 6:18 PM

  Would make for an incredible Obsidian plugin

• by agarwa90 on 8/17/24, 8:13 PM

  super cool, I have been looking for a tool like this.

• by seltzered_ on 8/16/24, 5:08 PM

  A reminder that Federated Wiki has a similar flow of opening side-by-side panels: http://fed.wiki.org/view/welcome-visitors/