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Go fonts

blog.golang.org

161–170 of 182 posts

Re: Go fonts

#161

This reminds me of Java applications that you can immediately tell are Java because of the weird font. I don't see an advantage over using native system fonts. As far as I know you don't need a license to use fonts installed on the system running the application. Why does the font need to be bundled? The wide spread adoption of this is going to make go programs stick out like a sore thumb.

I don't respect the self-imposed "x-platform native UI experience" constraint anymore. Even windows slowly rebuilt its user interface and experience over the years. It isn't a user demand, it doesn't put any pressure on support, frankly I have no idea what these people who spread all this custom drawn vs native control polemic were thinking. Also, if you are making money, who cares if you drew some of your controls o…

In the early days of windowed operating systems, absolute consistency in the look and feel helped people navigate unfamiliar apps. The proliferation of widgets on the web, and the use of different devices with different standards, has destroyed that rationale. The only thing consistency is good for anymore is establishing branding.

Re: Go fonts

#162
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised to see that you didn't add any Go-specific code ligatures (e.g. for Has there been any thought into providing a variant with some? While I could see why some might be against them I think they're rather fun and can make code more readable. [1] see for example https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode

This is honestly where I thought this was going when I saw the title. It would be cool for a font to be invested in the language it's used to describe to the point where it supports features of that language. I use Fira Code for JS, HTML, and CSS and it's great. Very rarely to the extra fun ligatures get in the way, and when they are printed they look absolutely gorgeous. I wish all/most code samples in tutorials and…

fyi you can get most sites to honor your font with a combination of the browser's default monospace font and extensions like Stylish.

even this comment box respects Fira Code, see[1]

[1]: https://imgur.com/a/LjbS3

Re: Go fonts

#163
post #139

I love that they actually included Bigelow's explanation of each decision made. So often (especially in the realm of programming fonts, it seems) decisions on letter forms in new fonts seem to be made "because it looks nice", but there is, in fact, a science behind it all. Indeed, Go Mono ticks every item I look for in a programming font (one of only 2 or 3 programming fonts that does): - slashed 0 - easy differentia…

Do you write OCaml or C (comments) by any chance? I've often found it hard to discover a typeface that has (* this is a comment *) vertically centered. My usual choice is Fira Mono because it looks great and centers * vertically, though I would love a serif monospace font. Maybe Go Mono will be revised but I doubt it will be updated anytime soon. When you say "6 point" do you mean it's bigger than usual? Is there a p…

I've found the vertically centered "" to be far superior almost everywhere. Definitely for comments, but even for pointers (yes, I do write a fair bit of C) it becomes clearer that the glyph is part of the type signature, and not just a footnote.

By "6 point" I mean the character itself has 6 "arms", instead of the typical 5. For my taste, it makes the glyph feel more balanced.

There is this repo: https://github.com/hbin/top-programming-fonts . Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the legality of obtaining Menlo without OS X/macOS. It is a variation on Bitstream Vera Sans, which is AFAIK Open Source, but I am completely ignorant when it comes to how licenses apply to fonts (as opposed to code).

As for SF Mono, that seems to be impossible to obtain even if* you have macOS and an Apple Developer account (only the UI fonts are available for download). I managed to dig them out of the Xcode application bundle and install them as system-wide fonts, but was greeted with a very scary warning stating that installing these fonts could destabilize my entire system (so far my OS is still running, though)...YMMV.

Re: Go fonts

#164

The page itself is set in the proportional version of Go. I found it distracting to read because of the uneven character widths. The majority of the characters (like 'b', 'd', 'f', 'k', 'l', 'o', and 't') are narrow, but some common letters (mainly the 'e' and 'c') are round and wide, with generous space around them. I can't get past the impression that I'm reading paper that wrinkled when it went through the printer…

The monospaced font looks very old, I don't like the look of it. The proportional one is ok but it can't be used for programming. In part because of the reasons you gave but especially because there is almost no gap between the two = characters in == and @ is almost superscripted, which looks wierd. I'm going back to Sans Regular (whatever it is on Ubuntu). It has its own problems (I and l look the same) but it's sti…

When I saw the monospaced font, I immediately thought "Courier". The differences are subtle, must less pronounced than the similarities. I wonder why they didn't just make a monospaced version of the Sans?

Re: Go fonts

#165
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you write OCaml or C (comments) by any chance? I've often found it hard to discover a typeface that has (* this is a comment *) vertically centered. My usual choice is Fira Mono because it looks great and centers * vertically, though I would love a serif monospace font. Maybe Go Mono will be revised but I doubt it will be updated anytime soon. When you say "6 point" do you mean it's bigger than usual? Is there a p…

I've found the vertically centered " " to be far superior almost everywhere. Definitely for comments, but even for pointers (yes, I do write a fair bit of C) it becomes clearer that the glyph is part of the type signature, and not just a footnote. By "6 point" I mean the character itself has 6 "arms", instead of the typical 5. For my taste, it makes the glyph feel more balanced. There is this repo: https://github.com…

Centered double quotes?

Re: Go fonts

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> who cares if you drew some of your controls on a canvas instead of trying to goad some restricted native elements into acting and drawing like you want them to Because now your app will break in HiDPI, for screen readers, automation tools, the next version of Unicode. Expected behavior like tabbing, keyboard shortcuts, system spell-checking breaks.

Why, then, doesn't firemonkey have any scaling or layout problems? Not all applications need any of the system level services that are coupled tightly with the system widgets.

> Why, then, doesn't firemonkey have any scaling or layout problems? Not all applications need any of the system level services that are coupled tightly with the system widgets.

I can't speak for Firemonkey specifically, but a lot of cross-platform toolkits of its ilk have horrible problems when rendered on 4K displays.

Re: Go fonts

#167
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monospace is kind of okay, I guess, but considering the competition there's nothing special about it. Many users will be coding with colour keyword support anyway, so the idea that it's going to be super-great for Go code is strange. I found the proportional font really hard to read. It's not as if Google can't do good typography: https://fonts.google.com/about So this seems like a rather self-indulgent and not w…

You do realise that B&H designed the original OS X system font, Lucida Grande, right?

And also the original MacOS font, Chicago!

Re: Go fonts

#168
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found the vertically centered " " to be far superior almost everywhere. Definitely for comments, but even for pointers (yes, I do write a fair bit of C) it becomes clearer that the glyph is part of the type signature, and not just a footnote. By "6 point" I mean the character itself has 6 "arms", instead of the typical 5. For my taste, it makes the glyph feel more balanced. There is this repo: https://github.com…

Centered double quotes?

Gah...silly markdown-not-really-markdown formatting. Should have been: "*"

Re: Go fonts

#169
post #36
post #24

Elements of the proportional font, like the little foot on the 'a' remind me of Lucida Grande. Lucida Grade was the original OS X system font, which B & H also developed. This is not their first rodeo, its all about licensing.

Definitely has a Lucida Grande feel to it, which, if I recall correctly, was one of the font on Plan9. The Go Mono isn't close to Lucida Grande Mono, but certainly looks like an interesting update.

Go Mono is closer to (or a remake of) the Pelm font from Plan 9.

Re: Go fonts

#170
post #36
post #24

Elements of the proportional font, like the little foot on the 'a' remind me of Lucida Grande. Lucida Grade was the original OS X system font, which B & H also developed. This is not their first rodeo, its all about licensing.

Definitely has a Lucida Grande feel to it, which, if I recall correctly, was one of the font on Plan9. The Go Mono isn't close to Lucida Grande Mono, but certainly looks like an interesting update.

Go Mono is closer to (or a remake of) the Pelm font from Plan 9.
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