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Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

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Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#51

Post by lukeholder »

quantisan wrote: post #35
lucianp wrote: post #30

My favorite is Source Code Pro by Adobe [1]. I use it on Mac OS X and Ubuntu. On Windows I have to use Consolas, because SCP does not render well in gVim for Windows (at least not on my system). Note that Source Code Pro does not have an Italic typeface yet. Italics are commonly used for source code comments and most editors will automatically emulate the shapes, often with poor results. Active development is current…

[2] was raised in 2012 and still in discussion. I have no idea how fonts are made. Why does it take 2+ years to make a font italic?

Its not just in discussion, a person has been commissioned and working on it for quite a while. it was 2 days he push the latest version.

Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#52

Post by johncoltrane »

I've used Inconsolata exclusively (the original first [1], then the -dz variant [2], then the -g variant [3]) since 2002 or 2003.

I've recently switched to Fira Mono [4], designed by the awesome Erik Spiekermann for Mozilla.

[1] http://levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html

[2] http://nodnod.net/2009/feb/12/adding-straight-single-and-dou...

[3] http://leonardo-m.livejournal.com/77079.html

[4] https://github.com/mozilla/Fira

Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#54

Post by GnarfGnarf »

teamhappy wrote: post #22
GnarfGnarf wrote: post #13

Courier New (Visual Studio). I keep trying other stuff, but they are a distraction. Courier New does not draw attention to itself, just seems to blend in, and the code communicates directly to you.

I'm a huge fan of Adobe's Source Code Pro, but you might wanna take a look at Courier Prime: http://quoteunquoteapps.com/courierprime/

Courier Prime is a very attractive font. Unfortunately the leading (inter-line spacing, pronounced "ledding") is 18% bigger than Courier New. In a full screen of code, I lose 7 lines. That means less visible code, more scrolling up & down. I suppose there are font editors to adjust that.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#56

Post by GnarfGnarf »

davewiner wrote: post #21

Geneva. I don't understand why programmers use monospace fonts, other than some kind of tradition.

That is an interesting observation. Perhaps it is due to habit. After 45 years of programming (started with punched cards), I am accustomed to fixed-pitch fonts. Proportional fonts for code seem unintelligible to me.

It is worth noting that all quality programming publications display code in fixed pitch. Knuth, in his epochal "Art of Computer Programming", uses fixed-pitch serif for source code. Petzold's "Programming Windows" uses fixed-pitch, as does Kernighan & Ritchie's "The C Programming Language".

Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#57

Post by davewiner »

yangyang wrote: post #26
davewiner wrote: post #21

Geneva. I don't understand why programmers use monospace fonts, other than some kind of tradition.

Alignment probably more than anything, though obviously the necessity for that depends on the language and style.

Alignment of what??

Not left edges. Even in non-monospace fonts, every blank is the same with, same with every tab.

Re: Ask HN: What programming font do you use?

#58

Post by davewiner »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #56
davewiner wrote: post #21

Geneva. I don't understand why programmers use monospace fonts, other than some kind of tradition.

That is an interesting observation. Perhaps it is due to habit. After 45 years of programming (started with punched cards), I am accustomed to fixed-pitch fonts. Proportional fonts for code seem unintelligible to me. It is worth noting that all quality programming publications display code in fixed pitch. Knuth, in his epochal "Art of Computer Programming", uses fixed-pitch serif for source code. Petzold's "Programmi…

I also use monospace font when publishing bits of source, it helps set it off from the rest of the text.

But in the code itself, this isn't a consideration.

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