Default code font (was Re: [squeak-dev] Re: Title bar bug on trunk)

Bert Freudenberg bert at freudenbergs.de
Sat Aug 22 20:33:53 UTC 2009


On 22.08.2009, at 21:39, Ian Trudel wrote:

> 2009/8/22 Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de>:
>> Elsewhere yes, but not in the Smalltalk tradition. Others are still
>> emulating character block generators, but Smalltalk relied on a  
>> bitmapped
>> display pretty much forever. I find Smalltalk code displayed in a
>> character-based terminal emulator style quite ugly.
>
> Yes, usually but wouldn't it be interesting anyhow considering that we
> can have anti-aliased monospaced font? For example, I did look quickly
> into the list provided by Stéphane Rollandin and an anti-aliased
> Monofur seems not that bad.


Sure, you can use it if you like, I'd just not make a non-proportional  
the default.

I use an anti-aliased monospaced font in my terminal every day. And in  
my C editor, too. Same for shell scripts or when I code Python. Even  
for plain-text emails. So it's not that I dislike them in general.

But not for Smalltalk :)

Smalltalk code looks a lot more like natural language text than most  
other programming languages, and the use of a proportional font  
emphasizes that likeness. Besides, if we had a proportional font by  
default then people would soon start aligning things with spaces,  
which looks ugly to those using a proportional font.

- Bert -




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