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The billionaire’s typewriter

practicaltypography.com

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Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#31

Post by rev_bird »

mryingster wrote: post #6
Tortoise wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The diamond indicates a link. It's a great convention once you understand it, but it's not at all obvious.

How is it a great convention? I'm not trying to be contentious, however I am not sure how that is superior to underlining a link, which is a fairly ubiquitous convention. It seems overly cumbersome. It made me think though that perhaps a superscript would serve the same purpose and be less intrusive.

I liked it, if only because it made the text look much more uniform. I imagine it was done out of objection to the "make the link bold and blue and underlined and very different" ethos that even Google was into until recently. With this, I can just read, and if I see a diamond, I know a mouseover will reveal the anchor text and point me toward whether I want to click on the thing or not.

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#32

Post by desdiv »

ghshephard wrote: post #14

Is it just my MacBook Air + OS X, or is the Font (ironically) on that site painful to read? Compare: https://medium.com/@willgossin/the-uncanny-valley-race-merit... To: http://practicaltypography.com/billionaires-typewriter.html [Edit: Also - no HTTPS? And No Favicon?]

Might be the font. He's using his own propriety font: http://practicaltypography.com/equity.html

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#33

Post by jalfresi »

Tortoise wrote: post #5
cphuntington97 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just figured my browser wasn't configured properly...weird.

The diamond indicates a link. It's a great convention once you understand it, but it's not at all obvious.

Blue, underlined text is the convention for hyperlinks on the web

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#34

Post by WalterBright »

There are some things I miss about a typewriter, like the visceral satisfaction of pounding on the keys and watching the text emerge.

I also miss typewriter fonts. Yes, I know I can get typewriter fonts, including the typewriter font that HD uses for its text entry boxes. I mean the unevenness of it due to mechanical variations, variations in the ribbon, etc., leading to every impression being slightly different.

Computer fonts are too perfect.

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#35

Post by jacalata »

This is disingenuous as shit. How does anyone who has a passing familiarity with minimalism have the nerve to write 'how is it pos­si­ble to be “the best” while of­fer­ing less?' Especially with the admission later in the article that yes, he designs tools with deliberate constraints.

I could certainly get behind an article arguing that Medium is bad for writers because of the centralization, loss of control of audience, etc. But this one isn't it, because it doesn't appear to acknowledge that some writers don't want to automate their own Wordpress themes (except with the dismissive 'if you really believe that' aside which I'm not counting).

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#36

Post by jccooper »

w1ntermute wrote: post #20

What is the point of inserting a "◊" before each link? It looks ridiculous and distracts from reading the article.

Because it's a web-based book? I've browsed about and haven't seen a clear explanation. (It took a while to figure out what the hell is going on at that site.)

Apparently he considers underlining a sin against typography [http://practicaltypography.com/underlining.html] as one of the "bad typewriter habits" [http://practicaltypography.com/typewriter-habits.html]. That might be why.

Which is funny, because one of his other rules is against abusing ALL CAPS [http://practicaltypography.com/all-caps.html]--which he does for internal links.

The site is also full of other absurd usability choices, like using the blank edges of the page for navigation [http://practicaltypography.com/how-to-use.html].

The author might know good typography for books, but has gone way overboard applying it to his website.

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#37

Post by shawnhermans »

In most cases, I disagree with the point the author is trying to make. The author is arguing against the heavy restrictions Medium places on typesetting and layout. As a reader and author, I don't want the author to worry about these types of details. I want them to worry about ideas and storytelling.

The only exception I can think of to this rule is for highly visual medium like graphic novels. In this case, typesetting and layout are inseparable from the medium. That being said, I don't think Medium is designed for that type of use case

There may be other cases where creative choices in typesetting and layout may enhance the writing, but this usually isn't the case. Normally, when an author tries to "spice up" their writing this way it ends up looking like a crappy MySpace or GeoCities page.

As an aside, George RR Martin apparently uses WordStar 4.0 to write his books. I don't know if this proves or disproves the argument. Maybe if he had more control over the typesetting and layout, he would be done with Winds of Winter by now.

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#38

Post by shawnhermans »

jarcane wrote: post #7

My favorite writing tool of all time is, without a question in my mind, LyX. It manages to find the perfect balance of minimal barriers to productivity, absolute power when I need it, and seriously professional grade results. It's like writing with iAWriter or similar tools, except I still have some basic structural options in the interface, and the end result generated is downright professional grade. I think the "W…

Back in my days in academia, I used LaTeX for math and physics. I liked that LaTeX separated out formatting of content from the display. It made it easier for me to focus on the getting the ideas and wording right and someone else worried about producing nice looking templates.

Since then, I have switched over to Markdown for most of writing. There are still ways to embed LaTeX when needed for equations, but without the added complexity of full LaTeX.

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#39

Post by matthewmcg »

jccooper wrote: post #36
w1ntermute wrote: post #20

What is the point of inserting a "◊" before each link? It looks ridiculous and distracts from reading the article.

Because it's a web-based book? I've browsed about and haven't seen a clear explanation. (It took a while to figure out what the hell is going on at that site.) Apparently he considers underlining a sin against typography [ http://practicaltypography.com/underlining.html ] as one of the "bad typewriter habits" [ http://practicaltypography.com/typewriter-habits.html ]. That might be why. Which is funny, because one of…

Agreed, but he doesn't use ALL CAPS for internal links. If you look closely[1], you'll see he uses small caps which are typographically distinct.

[1] check the a.xref stylein his CSS: http://practicaltypography.com/styles.css

Re: The billionaire’s typewriter

#40

Post by hbosch »

jacalata wrote: post #35

This is disingenuous as shit. How does anyone who has a passing familiarity with minimalism have the nerve to write 'how is it pos­si­ble to be “the best” while of­fer­ing less?' Especially with the admission later in the article that yes, he designs tools with deliberate constraints. I could certainly get behind an article arguing that Medium is bad for writers because of the centralization, loss of control of audie…

> How does anyone who has a passing familiarity with minimalism have the nerve to write 'how is it pos­si­ble to be “the best” while of­fer­ing less?'

Minimalism is not about offering less. Minimalism is about offering more, and presenting less — "more" here meaning depth of experience, in the broad sense. I think that is what he is suggesting, especially easy to discern in the context of his main thesis (that Medium isn't minimalist, it is homogeneity).

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