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Many well-designed proportional fonts have fixed-width numerals (if not by default, then available as alternates) to address alignment. I don’t think tech writ

Many well-designed proportional fonts have fixed-width numerals (if not by default, then available as alternates) to address alignment. I don’t think tech writers necessarily use monospace fonts for good reasons—most likely they’re simply accustomed to it, and it doesn’t occur to them that there’s something better out there. And this isn’t just about superficial appearances—I focused on poor legibility because it’s a readily apparent detriment to usability, but there are plenty of other things wrong with programming languages—enough to fill a book, which I should probably write. Strictly imperative programming, for instance, is a degenerate style of problem-solving that forces developers to exert far more effort than necessary to get the same amount of work done. Haskell is better, and more productive for me, than any procedural or object-oriented language I’ve used. Thanks for the comments, though. I really appreciate this kind of long-form feedback because it helps me improve my future writing.

gtrak 15y ago
counterexample, try this with a proportional font: abcde 11111 ilili 22222
deleted 15y ago
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tripzilch 15y ago
> I don’t think tech writers necessarily use monospace fonts for good reasons—most likely they’re simply accustomed to it, and it doesn’t occur to them that there’s something better out there. Well, this coder that also happens to know his typography also uses monospace fonts, and for good reasons. I have brainstormed a bit now and then of how to enhance Python code with typography, just as an experiment, typeset some code in a nice way, but to use proportional fonts you'd have to work with tabs and ... well the only way I could see it work is to (re) write an IDE to automatically do this typesetting and layouting while the code behind what you see is still normal Python code that would look like you'd expect in a monospaced font, too. Because you can't expect code only to be readable in one specific IDE and not in others. That's one of the important parts of typography, you always need to work within the limitations of the medium, while producing things that look good. And while superficially, you might consider the medium to be "computer screen", you'll find that eg webpages and code views really do have different limitations that need to be taken into account when thinking about their typography. A little bit analogous to designing books or newspapers, both are made of paper, but very different styles and design choices (that are partly influenced by their respective limitations). > Many well-designed proportional fonts have fixed-width numerals (if not by default, then available as alternates) to address alignment. Saying this almost makes me thing you don't actually write code. As someone else points out, fixed-width numerals are only a solution if there are not preceded by other characters on the line. Otherwise you need to work with tabs, but lots of programmers prefer spaces and that's not something you want to make them change.

gtrak 15y ago

counterexample, try this with a proportional font: abcde 11111 ilili 22222

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

tripzilch 15y ago

> I don’t think tech writers necessarily use monospace fonts for good reasons—most likely they’re simply accustomed to it, and it doesn’t occur to them that there’s something better out there. Well, this coder that also happens to know his typography also uses monospace fonts, and for good reasons. I have brainstormed a bit now and then of how to enhance Python code with typography, just as an experiment, typeset some code in a nice way, but to use proportional fonts you'd have to work with tabs and ... well the only way I could see it work is to (re) write an IDE to automatically do this typesetting and layouting while the code behind what you see is still normal Python code that would look like you'd expect in a monospaced font, too. Because you can't expect code only to be readable in one specific IDE and not in others. That's one of the important parts of typography, you always need to work within the limitations of the medium, while producing things that look good. And while superficially, you might consider the medium to be "computer screen", you'll find that eg webpages and code views really do have different limitations that need to be taken into account when thinking about their typography. A little bit analogous to designing books or newspapers, both are made of paper, but very different styles and design choices (that are partly influenced by their respective limitations). > Many well-designed proportional fonts have fixed-width numerals (if not by default, then available as alternates) to address alignment. Saying this almost makes me thing you don't actually write code. As someone else points out, fixed-width numerals are only a solution if there are not preceded by other characters on the line. Otherwise you need to work with tabs, but lots of programmers prefer spaces and that's not something you want to make them change.