What is "hardcoding"?

[doodlemancy]

I just joined a community and read their rules and it says "please don't hardcode your entries".

I cannot for the life of me find a definition of "hardcode" anywhere, at least not in the context of Dreamwidth. Doesn't seem to be on the jargon page of the wiki. What does that mean? Also is it generally unwelcome in communities, whatever it is?

Edit: thank you! I have been educated!!! I had totally forgotten about this aspect of journaling sites.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

It means to set up your Dreamwidth journal so that no one can read it in the typeface and size they have selected for their own journal. It means you have custom-coded your journal in such a way that everyone has to read the font you have picked and the size you have picked.

[doodlemancy]

Gooooot it. So you're forcing your themeing on other people instead of letting them decide how to read it. I had forgotten about this aspect of journal sites, haha.

[princessofgeeks]

Lucking in my reading list it is a rare occurance!

[trobadora]

It means using html to code fonts, font size, text colour or background in your entries. People generally don't like it because it makes things hard to read or may even make them invisible on a different background - most people read DW via their reading list, which is in their own style, and everyone's is different. Hardcoding overrides that.

[doodlemancy]

Gotcha! That makes sense! Thanks so much.

[azurelunatic]

It means to specify font color, font background color, a specific font, or a specific (rather than relative) font size. In practice, this means that you should not make your entry's presentation beautiful in a word processor and then paste it in to the rich text editor, and you should not pick color, background, font, or point size in the rich text editor.

You're free to use <em> </em> and <strong> </strong> for emphasis, and if you need fine print, <small> </small> is the best relative way to do it.

The reason for this is as princessofgeeks said: it means that all your choices get forced for everyone else trying to read it, rather than the choices they've made with their own style for their reading page. There are a lot of people who need their specific setup for accessibility reasons -- low vision, migraines, eye strain -- and if you have a hard time with the community style, you can apply your own journal's style or the site skin you picked by using that option from the bar at the top.

[doodlemancy]

Yeahhhh! That makes sense! So just not doing stuff that would override other people's reading setups, basically. Good to know!

[azurelunatic]

And thank you for asking this question; I've added it to the jargon section!

[pangolin20]

Something to maybe make hardcoded entries more accessible: You can override HTML coding at this page by typing in the CSS you want.