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The Monospace Web

owickstrom.github.io

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Re: The Monospace Web

#31

Post by dmd »

CM30 wrote: post #30
dmd wrote: post #29

Ooh, this is the thread to ask my question in. A few years ago I ran across a ... I think a video game walkthrough? maybe? which was written to be read in monospace font, and it was full justified perfectly all the way through (thousands of lines!) SOLELY through word choice. Anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link?

I vaguely recall seeing a GameFAQs walkthrough that did this, and I think it might have been for a Final Fantasy game of some kind, but unfortunately I can't remember more than that.

GameFAQ was enough! FOUND IT! Thank you!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs...

Re: The Monospace Web

#32

Post by tvchurch »

dmd wrote: post #31
CM30 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely recall seeing a GameFAQs walkthrough that did this, and I think it might have been for a Final Fantasy game of some kind, but unfortunately I can't remember more than that.

GameFAQ was enough! FOUND IT! Thank you! https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs...

This is why the internet exists.

Incredible catharsis. Love it.

Re: The Monospace Web

#33

Post by [deleted] »

dmd wrote: post #29

Ooh, this is the thread to ask my question in. A few years ago I ran across a ... I think a video game walkthrough? maybe? which was written to be read in monospace font, and it was full justified perfectly all the way through (thousands of lines!) SOLELY through word choice. Anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link?

[deleted]

Re: The Monospace Web

#34

Post by macleginn »

dmd wrote: post #29

Ooh, this is the thread to ask my question in. A few years ago I ran across a ... I think a video game walkthrough? maybe? which was written to be read in monospace font, and it was full justified perfectly all the way through (thousands of lines!) SOLELY through word choice. Anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link?

Cf. also http://tom7.org/bovex/ (a layout engine that tries to achieve a similar effect by rephrasing the input using an LLM).

Re: The Monospace Web

#35

Post by 5- »

dmd wrote: post #31
CM30 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely recall seeing a GameFAQs walkthrough that did this, and I think it might have been for a Final Fantasy game of some kind, but unfortunately I can't remember more than that.

GameFAQ was enough! FOUND IT! Thank you! https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs...

this gets discussed, or at least mentioned, often on hn, e.g.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28651093 (this very faq)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40773880 (jart's commit)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40605970 (tom7's gnujpl)

and bonus: recently i've been enjoying http://arlyle.sdf.org/

(unfortunately, links do not work in preformatted text on hn)

Re: The Monospace Web

#36

Post by beautron »

dmd wrote: post #31
CM30 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vaguely recall seeing a GameFAQs walkthrough that did this, and I think it might have been for a Final Fantasy game of some kind, but unfortunately I can't remember more than that.

GameFAQ was enough! FOUND IT! Thank you! https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs...

Wow, this is wild! Maintaining perfect justification solely through word choice is... quite a writing constraint, lol. I don't think I've seen this done before.

Re: The Monospace Web

#37

Post by spartanatreyu »

naet wrote: post #15
alberth wrote: post #2

Typography is so difficult on the web due to lack of support for things CSS textbox-trim https://github.com/jantimon/text-box-trim-examples You can see that even on this website, if you click "Debug Mode" (top right) and notice that later in the page, the headings and body copy begin to drift out of vertical alignment (against the background grid).

That type of font/textbox issue is my #1 gap in modern CSS. Honestly I'm surprised that it wasn't addressed long ago, seems like such a foundational issue for rendering text.

Well it's actually the font designers at fault here and not a CSS issue.

See more here: https://tonsky.me/blog/centering/

But so much time is being wasted on developers fine tuning magic numbers that the browsers are extending CSS to automatically fix the font developer's mistakes.

Re: The Monospace Web

#38

Post by bobajeff »

I think this is a great experiment. It is readable on my phone but I probably wouldn't want to read everything like this though. I think it's worth looking at old visual designs (like this person did) and seeing how they can be used in design and UX.

Re: The Monospace Web

#39

Post by jareklupinski »

wonger_ wrote: post #24

I've been keeping a list of monospace pages: https://wonger.dev/posts/monospace-dump#web . Currently have ~50. Spacing is a challenge. And you lose some legibility giving up proportional fonts. I think kerning in proportional fonts makes a big difference, letting your eyes recognize the shape of different letter groupings. Monospace text is fine if you avoid long-form text, like when it's structured and highlighted i…

here's one more for the list :) https://jarek.lupin.ski/tape-deck/

Re: The Monospace Web

#40

Post by dspillett »

wonger_ wrote: post #24

I've been keeping a list of monospace pages: https://wonger.dev/posts/monospace-dump#web . Currently have ~50. Spacing is a challenge. And you lose some legibility giving up proportional fonts. I think kerning in proportional fonts makes a big difference, letting your eyes recognize the shape of different letter groupings. Monospace text is fine if you avoid long-form text, like when it's structured and highlighted i…

One of your examples is now a for sale domain. Still on WBM though: https://web.archive.org/web/20230216225350/https://kary.us/n...
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