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vova_hn2today at 5:02 PM2 repliesview on HN

Is it weird that I look at most of the offered pairs and think "meh, both are ok, I guess", but do not feel any preference one way or the other?

Like, some fonts look to weird/unusual that I dislike. But most look just fine and I don't really care.

Am I weird? Do I lack taste?


Replies

GuB-42today at 5:51 PM

It is all about the details:

- Ligatures or not

- *: in the middle (better for things like multiplication), or high (better for things like C pointers)

- Alignment of =, >, - some fonts align -, = and > to that "=>" and "->" look good, others will not, making it arguably look better in isolation, others will optimize for ligatures

- The "i" may look significantly different, some will prioritize consistency, others will prioritize making il1I look distinct. Same idea for 0/O

- Aspect ratio, do you want a wide font, making alignment, indentation, and special characters clearer, or a narrow font, allowing you to cram longer lines into a single screen.

These are compromises, and depending on your style and language, you may prefer one or the other.

bigstrat2003today at 6:44 PM

No, not weird at all. I can't even imagine caring about what font one uses for programming.