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I'm curious to know how you started using proportional fonts for coding. All of the tooling for writing code defaults to monospace, so what started you coding i

I'm curious to know how you started using proportional fonts for coding. All of the tooling for writing code defaults to monospace, so what started you coding in a different style?

edejong 8y ago
For me it was efficiency of reading. It is proven that proportional, serif fonts read significantly faster (17%) [1] or [2] (6.1%). Also, in my opinion, scanning is much faster. This makes sense: our eye uses the top and bottom of words to ‘key’ the word. Use proportional and you add information to this system. [1] https://blog.codinghorror.com/comparing-font-legibility/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/comparing-font-legibility/ [2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001872088302500303 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001872088302500... (edit: add references to research)
Stratoscope 8y ago
Thank you for your curiosity! My other comment may answer the "how I started" question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18958335 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18958335 But one thing I'm wondering about: > All of the tooling for writing code defaults to monospace... Do you have an example of such tooling? One that I'm familiar with is Google's coding standards, which are obsessed with lining things up in ways that only work in monospaced fonts. Is that the kind of thing you're thinking of, or something else? Thanks!
int_19h 8y ago
One of the early proponents of using proportional fonts for code was Bjarne Stroustroup - his "The C++ Programming Language" books all do that, and he briefly explains it in the intro as being more readable, and urges the readers to give it a go. I wasn't convinced, personally, but the idea was already around then.
- augustk 8y ago
  Using a proportional font is also common (recommended) when programming in Bertrand Meyer's Eiffel or Niklaus Wirth's Oberon.
- teddyh 8y ago
  The Smalltalk system also used proportional fonts, and predates that book by many years.
  - int_19h 8y ago
    The first edition of the C++ book was in 1985, so that is roughly the same timeframe as Smalltalk-80 getting popular.
plasmapanda 8y ago
Optimize all the things. Noto Sans is my current favorite.
GuB-42 8y ago
IDEs defaulting to proportional fonts are uncommon but not unheard of. I think BlitzMax or BlitzPlus uses proportional fonts by default. Coding using proportional fonts is easy to get used to, and it has its proponents. The key is: indent, don't align, and use TABs.

I'm curious to know how you started using proportional fonts for coding. All of the tooling for writing code defaults to monospace, so what started you coding in a different style?

edejong 8y ago

For me it was efficiency of reading. It is proven that proportional, serif fonts read significantly faster (17%) [1] or [2] (6.1%). Also, in my opinion, scanning is much faster. This makes sense: our eye uses the top and bottom of words to ‘key’ the word. Use proportional and you add information to this system. [1] https://blog.codinghorror.com/comparing-font-legibility/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/comparing-font-legibility/ [2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001872088302500303 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001872088302500... (edit: add references to research)

Stratoscope 8y ago

Thank you for your curiosity! My other comment may answer the "how I started" question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18958335 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18958335 But one thing I'm wondering about: > All of the tooling for writing code defaults to monospace... Do you have an example of such tooling? One that I'm familiar with is Google's coding standards, which are obsessed with lining things up in ways that only work in monospaced fonts. Is that the kind of thing you're thinking of, or something else? Thanks!

int_19h 8y ago

One of the early proponents of using proportional fonts for code was Bjarne Stroustroup - his "The C++ Programming Language" books all do that, and he briefly explains it in the intro as being more readable, and urges the readers to give it a go. I wasn't convinced, personally, but the idea was already around then.

augustk 8y ago
Using a proportional font is also common (recommended) when programming in Bertrand Meyer's Eiffel or Niklaus Wirth's Oberon.
teddyh 8y ago
The Smalltalk system also used proportional fonts, and predates that book by many years.
- int_19h 8y ago
  The first edition of the C++ book was in 1985, so that is roughly the same timeframe as Smalltalk-80 getting popular.

plasmapanda 8y ago

Optimize all the things. Noto Sans is my current favorite.

GuB-42 8y ago

IDEs defaulting to proportional fonts are uncommon but not unheard of. I think BlitzMax or BlitzPlus uses proportional fonts by default. Coding using proportional fonts is easy to get used to, and it has its proponents. The key is: indent, don't align, and use TABs.