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one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social )  to Programming@programming.devEnglish · 6 months ago

What do you want out of a coding monospace font?

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What do you want out of a coding monospace font?

one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social )  to Programming@programming.devEnglish · 6 months ago
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Source from HN because they have shadowbans: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773594

I’m wondering too what you are looking for in a font. Good looks, features, options to enable or disable, ligatures?

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  • vogi ( vogi@piefed.social ) 
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    6 months ago

    Recently switched to Maple Mono because it is fun and cozy.

    • Rimu ( rimu@piefed.social ) 
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      6 months ago

      I’ve been using JetBrains Mono and Maple looks the same but nicer. Thanks!

    • Kissaki ( Kissaki@programming.dev ) 
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      6 months ago

      Connected strokes in italic style, vivify your code.

      That’s cool and interesting (you can see it in action and toggle-compare on the linked website)

      I wonder how distracting it would be in code, though. If it is, their configurability allows skipping that feature though, which is great.

      • vogi ( vogi@piefed.social ) 
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        6 months ago

        Yea, as its only applied to italics its less distracting than it might seem at first. Your IDE may not even use italics. In VSCode with my theme, italics are used for comments and variable names, which looks like this: WLNTqLUp8P2AC1W.png

        • hallettj ( hallettj@leminal.space ) 
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          6 months ago

          I like to use this style of italics for keywords. (That’s also what the Maple examples do.) My thinking is you see keywords so often that you recognize them by shape, not by reading the individual letters. And my theory is that the italic variant being a little harder to read helps my eyes skim over keywords, to focus more on words that I do need to read precisely, like variable names.

          It does mean that I spend some time customizing my syntax highlighting theme to make it work the way I prefer. I’ve got examples set up on my blog. Although that’s not Maple - it’s a different font with cursive italics called Cartograph CF.

          • vogi ( vogi@piefed.social ) 
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            6 months ago

            Oh wow that looks pretty and also makes total sense in theory. I think I have seen it in other places as well and might just steal that. :) Thank you for pointing that out.

        • prole ( prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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          6 months ago

          Why is ‘l’ the only cursive letter (and not connected to anything)? It’s kind of jarring

        • thingsiplay ( thingsiplay@lemmy.ml ) 
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          6 months ago

          I don’t like that one and the same character looks different on the same line (here console.log).

    • bitfucker ( bitfucker@programming.dev ) 
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      6 months ago

      This is a great find. Thank you very much kind internet stranger

    • 404 ( 404@lemmy.zip ) 
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      6 months ago

      Yes! I built my own variant using their tool (removing the weird italic l etc). I love it.

  • mbirth 🇬🇧 ( mbirth@lemmy.ml ) 
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    6 months ago

    Ligatures, slashed zeros, clearly distinguishable Il1/O0, not too big of a gap between lines, and maybe script-like italics. My current main monospace font is IosevkaTerm Nerd Font.

    I also find the idea of using retro pixel fonts interesting, but so far couldn’t get myself to actually try some of the fonts mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47708411 .

  • communism ( communism@lemmy.ml ) 
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    6 months ago

    Nice to look at. Disambiguates commonly confused characters (l, 1, I; 0, O).

  • MonkderVierte ( MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ) 
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    6 months ago

    Good readability of code.

  • andicraft ( andicraft@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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    6 months ago

    I want it to be Iosevka

    • prole ( prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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      6 months ago

      Thank you for reminding me of this font name. I did a clean install of my OS a few weeks back, and forgot the terminal font I had been using

  • vext01 ( vext01@feddit.uk ) 
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    6 months ago

    I love iosevka because it’s so condensed. You can fit so much on the screen.

    • one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social ) OP
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      6 months ago

      I love narrow fonts because it feels like regular text, but monospaced at the same time, and lines are easier to read too.

  • whotookkarl ( whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
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    6 months ago

    For mono space I’ve been using Ubuntu mono for a long time, there may be better but it was good enough when I was choosing and I haven’t had any issues that made me want to pick a new one. For standard I use open sans.

    • prole ( prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 
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      6 months ago

      I really like the Ubuntu font family. Been rocking it on my Bazzite install for a bit now

  • mimavox ( mimavox@piefed.social ) 
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    6 months ago

    I love Input sans because it gives me a very pleasant retro vibe, especially at heavy weights.

  • Auster ( Auster@thebrainbin.org ) 
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    6 months ago

    Archived ycombinator link: https://archive.ph/y43fV

    • one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social ) OP
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      6 months ago

      Thanks.

  • belated_frog_pants ( belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org ) 
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    6 months ago

    Perfectly half circle parens

    • bleistift2 ( bleistift2@sopuli.xyz ) 
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      6 months ago

      I would like my parentheses to look normal, thank you.

  • Matty_r ( Matty_r@programming.dev ) 
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    6 months ago

    This came up the other week, https://www.codingfont.com/ can help you narrow down what you find looks the best.

  • esa ( syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de ) 
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    6 months ago

    Not that big on ligatures in monospace, really. I think I just go with what seems to look kinda nice and has a big enough amount of symbols to not look weird once a few of them are needed.

    Also generally prefer dotted zero, or an inverse Ø. Fonts that make 0 and Ø look the same might as well just drop the slash altogether.

    In spite of that I’ve been using Fantasque Sans Mono for years. At least the slash in its 0 doesn’t extend beyond the circle like in an Ø.

  • NewOldGuard ( NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml ) 
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    6 months ago

    No ambiguous characters, nice ligatures

  • Kissaki ( Kissaki@programming.dev ) 
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    6 months ago

    I use Cascadia Code / the NerdFonts extension Caskaydia Code.

    Primarily I look for readability, distinguishability. Ligatures are nice, I came to like them. Eligibility on different font sizes and weight/bold and italic, and colors - they must remain very readable and distinguishable.

    I’m using the same font (family) for coding and terminal/console.

    • one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social ) OP
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      6 months ago

      I had never heard of that font, I’ll try it someday, thanks.

      • Kissaki ( Kissaki@programming.dev ) 
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        6 months ago

        Cascadia Code is a Microsoft font (their most recent coding font). Because the name is protected, Nerd Fonts forks the name.

  • one_old_coder ( one_old_coder@piefed.social ) OP
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    6 months ago

    I personally use PragmataPro and Berkeley Mono (both paid fonts) because they are pretty, have ligatures, and are narrow enough to show more text on a line.

    Edit: I forgot https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ which can be customized to mimic other fonts.

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