Sidebar columns are too narrow so variable and method names are cut in half

[rec]

Expected Behavior

Variable names (e.g. class methods or members) that aren't "too long" should be displayed on one line

Actual Behavior

Variable names above 10 characters or so are split over two lines

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the pdoc documentation: https://pdoc3.github.io/pdoc/doc/pdoc/
2. The variable instance_variables in Class is cut in half unless the window is extremely wide

Additional info

• pdoc version: master

[rec]

Thanks for this excellent package!

I'm reporting this first, and then I'm going to take a peek at coming up with a pull request.

My guess is that my solution will be a "single column sidebar" option that you can turn on but I haven't even looked at the code yet. :-)

[rec]

Ah, so I haven't really even figured out where you render the sidebar and I'm out of time for this increment. Let me know if you have some hints as to how to proceed...

[kernc]

This is the relevant template code. The heuristic is indeed very simple.

pdoc/pdoc/templates/html.mako

Lines 83 to 92 in c423762

	<%def name="show_column_list(items)">
	<%
	two_column = len(items) >= 6 and all(len(i.name) < 20 for i in items)
	%>
	<ul class="${'two-column' if two_column else ''}">
	% for item in items:
	<li><code>${link(item, item.name)}</code></li>
	% endfor
	</ul>
	</%def>

Ideally, this would degrade gracefully via CSS, but I somewhat doubt it's possible with the current, column-count implementation.

pdoc/pdoc/templates/css.mako

Lines 137 to 139 in c423762

	#index .two-column {
	column-count: 2;
	}

[rec]

Ah, very cool! So I could easily override this in my own template, and I will.

It might be... that this is supposed to be a really simple dox generator, that "one column mode always" might be the best for 95% of the world, and the other 5% can override column_count in their own templates? :-)

[kernc]

I like the two-column mode on wide screens. I'd rather consider an alternative CSS implementation, such as two separate lists floated left or additional CSS media queries. 🤔

[rec]

Well, unfortunately the customization was too easy so you robbed me of the impetus to fix it! :-D (Also, it seems I have a new job too...) The documentation looks so nice, and took a tiny fraction of the time it took me to get Sphinx going on my last project. I'll be using pdoc by default from now on....

[kernc]

The problem with overridden templates is maintaining them. Even as the API is mostly stable and shouldn't break customized templates in the near future, you're on your own merging in any likely forthcoming improvements.

---

As an alternative, care to test PR #31 and see if it works well with your project on various zoom / browser width levels?