Possible improvements for the "embed linked gists" feature

[sindresorhus]

#820 (comment)

• some gists may be long or have multiple files
  GitHub limits their embeds to 12 lines + scroll:

• there's no clear indicator of what file belongs to what gist like for the regular github.com auto-embeds:
  

• there's no loading indicator, the content just pops into place at some point in whatever loading order

[scottnonnenberg]

In the Signal Desktop repository we frequently link to thousand-line gists, and they really don't work inline. I'd really appreciate a max lines limit for embedded files. For example: signalapp/Signal-Desktop#1884

(I've turned off Refined GitHub until something happens here)

[sindresorhus]

@scottnonnenberg I agree. What do you think would be a sensible line limit?

[sindresorhus]

Or should we just make it scrollable with a max height container?

[yakov116]

What do you think would be a sensible line limit?

This

[scottnonnenberg]

What I want to avoid is completely losing the context of the discussion. A limit of something like half the height of the current viewport would help ensure that.

[fregante]

Like GitHub already does with permalink embeds, they should be limited to 12 lines via max-height + overflow: auto

The other problem is when they are multiple files.

• limit to ~12 lines combined? 😕
• avoid embedding?
• group the files together? 👈
• leave the original gist link as context?
• embed them under a <detail> + <summary>? 👈
• limit to one file per embed? 😕

[fregante]

@scottnonnenberg this pr ⬆️ should let you re-enable Refined GitHub until a comprehensive solution is devised.

[sindresorhus]

I think we should just avoid embedding if there are multiple files. The embedding feature is intended for simple gists.

[fregante]

Should we then show this info by the link? Otherwise one might think that the embed didn't work.

[sindresorhus]

Can't we just document in the readme that it only applies to single-file gists?

[fregante]

Sure, but since we still have to load the gist and count the files we might as well attach some info, e.g.

https://gist.github.com/staltz/868e7e9bc2a7b8c1f754 (2 files)

[sindresorhus]

Yeah, showing the file count could be useful.