Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Programming Fonts – Test Drive

app.programmingfonts.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 289 posts

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#131

Post by rypskar »

ethelward wrote: post #129
rypskar wrote: post #114

I am fascinated of how important font is for some, I tend to stick with the default font and not think about it. The only time I have really noticed a font is libre font (or what its name was) after installing LibreOffice, I did uninstall LibreOffice and bought MS Office instead because of that font

So instead of just chosing another font for the default style, you decided to thrash LO and buy MS Office? That seems a bit of an overreaction, no?

The font was a big part of the reason. Maybe having a font where the spacing between some letters looks like a space between words say a bit about how the UX is prioritized. The money difference between LO and MS Office isn't much when you don't upgrade every year

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#133

Post by ethelward »

Stratoscope wrote: post #51
ww520 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious. How do you line things up?

> Curious. How do you line things up? I don't! :-) I spent many years lining things up. I would write code like this: foobar(firstArg, secondArg, thirdArg); (For the sake of discussion, assume that those arguments were too long to just put it all on one line, so you would naturally want to use multiple lines.) Then when I realized that 'foobar' wasn't such a good name, I had to re-align all the code: doTheRealThing(f…

> I had to re-align all the code:

Cannot you just have your editor do that for you?

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#134

Post by dspillett »

A handy list and preview.

It might be nice to include some detail as to the features provided by some of the fonts on the font list, if it can be done without making the UI too busy.

I'm thinking indicators for things like: true italic provided (instead of leaving the OS to use false italics), true bold provided, programming ligatures (as seen in those like Fira Code), ... Perhaps filters too.

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#135

Post by toyg »

dspillett wrote: post #134

A handy list and preview. It might be nice to include some detail as to the features provided by some of the fonts on the font list, if it can be done without making the UI too busy. I'm thinking indicators for things like: true italic provided (instead of leaving the OS to use false italics), true bold provided, programming ligatures (as seen in those like Fira Code), ... Perhaps filters too.

Ligatures could probably be simply shown by adding one or two of the most common ones ( <=, != etc...)

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#136

Post by drey08 »

tigen wrote: post #64

The Terminus font doesn't seem to render properly there. Possibly it's just my browser but I use that font all the time in the terminal. Here it looks glitchy/aliased or something.

It's one of the reasons why I still haven't fully switched to VSCode. There doesn't seem to be a way to disable antialiasing in VSCode to make this font look good, as far as I can tell.

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#137

Post by chrismorgan »

chrismorgan wrote: post #66
1kGarand wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks quite similar to golang font: https://blog.golang.org/go-fonts It has serifs and true italics. Might be an interesting free alternative.

Ah yes, I had forgotten about that one—it’s definitely the closest font I’ve found to Triplicate, and its serif style is partially slab and partially true serif (to a similar degree to Triplicate, really).

Oh yeah, I forgot to address the other point: Go Mono doesn’t really have true italics. One or two of its letter forms are adjusted (double decker a to single decker a), but apart from that it’s just sloped roman. Look at the Triplicate specimens to see the difference, if you want. The whole shape of the character changes.

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#139

Post by toyg »

hmottestad wrote: post #39
1kGarand wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verdana used to be my go to proportional font when I was doing Java. Helped with long variable names and long horizontal lines. My buddies thought I was nuts, but I found it very legible. These days my eyes are dimming, so I dislike skinny fonts. Now I use DejaVu Sans Mono in _bold_ exclusively. Every now and then when HN does a programming font post, I try out different ones, but I always end up going back to DejaVu…

+1 for Verdana. Been using it for 3 years now. Couldn't be happier.

Man, Verdana gives me flashbacks of late-'90s messing with html. If it hits the typical 20-years fashion rota and gets cool again, I'll feel really old. It's the flannel shirt of fonts.

Re: Programming Fonts – Test Drive

#140

Post by duckerude »

int_19h wrote: post #85
hmottestad wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for Verdana. Been using it for 3 years now. Couldn't be happier.

For those who like Verdana, check this out. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/verdana-pro/9n8d67vhhdc2 Coincidentally, I wonder if the license allows it to be downloaded and installed on other OSes, like the old "Microsoft core fonts" package that included Verdana.

>Coincidentally, I wonder if the license allows it to be downloaded and installed on other OSes, like the old "Microsoft core fonts" package that included Verdana.

It doesn't look like it.

The Microsoft core fonts EULA (https://web.archive.org/web/20091208063245/http://www.micros...) says things like:

> You may install and use an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

> You may reproduce and distribute an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT; provided that [they're verbatim, include the EULA, aren't distributed for profit]

> You may not rename, edit or create any derivative works from the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, other than subsetting when embedding them in documents.

> You may permanently transfer all of your rights under this EULA, provided the recipient agrees to the terms of this EULA.

So you can distribute and install them. You have to take some care, but you don't need to involve Microsoft, and you're not bound to the systems they were originally intended for.

The Verdana Pro license (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/#STANDARDA...) says things like:

> You may install and use the application on Windows devices or Xbox consoles [...]

> [You may not:] Work around any technical limitations in the application.

So it's very limited.

Post reply on HN