Top Programming Fonts • Hacker News Board

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#21

Post by ludwig » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:43 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #19

[deleted]

Well, there's APL. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AplLanguage

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#22

Post by Karn » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:49 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I say this every time this discussion comes up but I do feel it bears repeating: I switched away from monospaced a while ago and I am never going back. I encourage you to try something like Verdana for a week just to see how it feels.

I've been using Verdana for coding for years, with some modifications. I've changed the parentheses, braces, operators etc. to be more prominent - that makes it just perfect for me.

Edit: screenshot here: http://i.imgur.com/xv5oz.png

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#23

Post by cschmidt » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:49 PM UTC

I use Pragmata as my programming font. It isn't free, but I've used it every day for years, so it certainly has justified its cost. Visiting his site, I see there's now a pro version, so I'll have to upgrade.

http://www.fsd.it/fonts/pragmatapro.htm

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#24

Post by joshuacc » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:50 PM UTC

Inconsolata looks like it is nice for Mac users, but on Windows 7 with Cleartype enabled (the default) it is the blurriest font I've ever seen, regardless of what size I used.

Consolas, on the other hand, is exceedingly crisp.

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#25

Post by getonit » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:52 PM UTC

I don't wish to troll, but I see this a lot and I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone needs to give this any more thought than 'monospace, next question?', despite many explanations each time.

Can someone shed some light on any advantages they feel are of a reasonably significant importance, and why? I mean, I can see plenty of advantages, but they're all so negligible they're not worth even the time it takes to change font, IMHO.

...and do please note the IMHO - I'm asking, not telling :)

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#26

Post by turbohz » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:54 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I say this every time this discussion comes up but I do feel it bears repeating: I switched away from monospaced a while ago and I am never going back. I encourage you to try something like Verdana for a week just to see how it feels.

My IDE is misconfigured, and for html/css code uses Arial, or some other proportional font.

It's just painful to watch!

The non grid alignment, randomness, just makes it more distracting to me. Perhaps if I was exposed to it for a long er period of time, a week as you suggested, this uneasiness will slowly fade.

But, let me ask you: What's that you find so good about it? More content in less space? Why won't you go back?

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#27

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:55 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I say this every time this discussion comes up but I do feel it bears repeating: I switched away from monospaced a while ago and I am never going back. I encourage you to try something like Verdana for a week just to see how it feels.

[deleted]

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#28

Post by extension » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:55 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #11

I say this every time this discussion comes up but I do feel it bears repeating: I switched away from monospaced a while ago and I am never going back. I encourage you to try something like Verdana for a week just to see how it feels.

The problem is that you can't align things in the middle of a line. I do that all the time to make repetitive code easier to read (when repetition can't be avoided entirely).

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#29

Post by turbohz » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:56 PM UTC

I've tried many monospaced fonts.

For a long time I was a ProFont guy. But I recently switched to Liberation Mono, and I just LOVE it.

EDIT: pic or didn't happen > http://i.imgur.com/UAag3.png

Re: Top Programming Fonts

#30

Post by timtadh » Wed, May 25, 2011, 12:58 PM UTC

getonit wrote: post #25

I don't wish to troll, but I see this a lot and I can't for the life of me figure out how anyone needs to give this any more thought than 'monospace, next question?', despite many explanations each time. Can someone shed some light on any advantages they feel are of a reasonably significant importance, and why? I mean, I can see plenty of advantages, but they're all so negligible they're not worth even the time it ta…

I only use monospace fonts with well differentiated Ls and 1s. This is a pretty important issue to me as I was constantly making dumb mistakes, and in general it improves readability.

On another note, you probably change the default font when writing a major document in a word processor (unless your using LaTex in which case Computer Modern is often the way to go). Changing your coding font is exactly like that. People like to customize and give their system a personal flavor. Changing fonts and syntax colors is just one part of customizing a system.