
Show HN: Cascadia Code, a Font for Windows Terminal and VSCode - hmsync
https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code
======
manigandham
This is pretty neat. Here's the overview blog post:
[https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/cascadia-
code/](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/cascadia-code/)

FYI, there's also the "Input" font for coding:
[https://input.fontbureau.com/](https://input.fontbureau.com/) and of course
"Fira Code" which became popular for ligatures:
[https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode)

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teilo
I wish some thought would be given to alternate widths for monospaced fonts.

Once I got used to the narrow width of Iosevka[†], all these other admittedly
wonderful terminal/code fonts lost their appeal to me. Everything else just
looks fat now.

[†][https://typeof.net/Iosevka](https://typeof.net/Iosevka)

~~~
pvinis
I completely agree! I came to Iosevka for the looks, but now I don't want to
leave because of the width. :D

~~~
pstadler
Oh boy, same here. Glad I found some soulmates! Input Mono Compressed comes
close though.

------
tony
Microsoft is just on a roll when it comes to open source.

\- Windows Terminal is pretty solid, and fast. Dare I say, nearing rxvt-
unicode/kitty speed. There are some remaining terminal corruption with tmux +
vim sessions, but soon enough it'll be replacing hyper/conemu for me.

\- WSL 2 alleviates file system issues that plagued WSL. I recently wiped
debian off my Thinkpad because there's no point, I get everything I need from
WSL 2. And I can start to dabble with learning C# / Visual Studio.

\- [https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim](https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim)
This thing, which has support for Unity and Unreal, and is MIT licensed

\- VSCode: They ship a new feature release every month I guess? I was happy
with it 1 year or two ago, but now they also have WSL 2 integration. This
editor works across platforms on MacOS as well.

\- Windows 10: Snapping, HiDPI, sound management, drivers just work, lots of
apps in windows store, if not you have everything in chocolatey anyway. Steam,
with all the games, at full speed. macOS is no longer clearly superior the
consumer OS space. Windows 10 is better IMO.

The best part of Windows though is hardware choice. Unlike Apple where you're
stuck with an expensive metal wedge, a keyboard you may not (or may!) like,
that at least for me gets miserably slow after 3 years, in Windows-land you
can pick Dell, Lenovo, HP, so on. You can build your own Desktop, and pick
good quality components that last, that aren't soldered together wastefully.
Generally speaking, it's more DIY / Hacker friendly.

Maybe Microsoft is getting stronger, or Apple is losing touch with open source
stuff trying to push their app / boutique hardware business model. But without
open source and standards, what will be left to sustain it all if/when their
app/hardware market sours?

~~~
samsaga2
\- Windows Terminal is nice but the windows command line is not. I don't like
PowerShell, it is too verbose.

\- WSL 2 is not stable and it is only available for the Windows Insider
program. And it does not have X.

\- Windows 10 drivers sucks. For example, Intel Graphics drivers has a lot of
bugs.

\- ClearType has been improved but Linux and Mac font aliasing is a lot
better.

\- I cannot upgrade my laptop to the last Windows version because something
about the seller. The Windows Update does not give me the option.

\- Windows really need a package manager. And not, Chocolatey is not enough.

\- Windows desktop is nice but is not for me. I would like to remove the task
bar and install something like i3wm.

\- NTFS is getting old and it is very slow if you have a lot of small files.

Windows is nice to a light development. But if you really need a complete
solution you have to search for alternatives.

PD: I have nothing against vscode :).

~~~
throwaway8941
>I don't like PowerShell, it is too verbose.

    
    
        alias
    

>Intel Graphics drivers has a lot of bugs

They suck everywhere. I've had nothing but problems with HD4600 on Linux.
Frequent video player crashes, kernel lockups, glitches, the whole shebang.

>\- ClearType has been improved but Linux ... font aliasing is a lot better.

I have the opposite experience. Depends on your display I guess.

>I would like to remove the task bar

You can remove it. I don't use and don't see it on Win10.

>\- NTFS is getting old and it is very slow if you have a lot of small files.

It's not NTFS. NTFS by itself is plenty fast.
[https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425...](https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425272829)

~~~
nickcox
> alias

Right. And it ships with sensible aliases for pretty much everything right out
of the box as well as excellent completion.

Don't really get the 'too verbose' argument at all.

~~~
fortran77
It's probably just too advanced for him. I love PowerShell and use it on
Linux, too.

------
m0zg
MS can't really win against its own Consolas. If you haven't tried Consolas,
you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Would be cool if MS opensourced that,
if they can.

~~~
Stratoscope
Consolas has been my favorite monospaced font for years.

I prefer proportional fonts for reading and writing code, and my current
favorite is another Microsoft font, Trebuchet MS.

But when I need a monospaced font, like in a terminal, Consolas is it.

~~~
saagarjha
> But when I need a proportional font, like in a terminal, Consolas is it.

You mean monospaced font? I’m curious why you use proportional fonts when
writing code but not in your terminal.

~~~
Stratoscope
Whoops, sorry for the very confusing typo, and thanks for noting it! Corrected
now. That's what I get for commenting on HN when I should have already called
it a night... :-)

With the typo corrected, yes I do prefer proportional fonts (and as mentioned
especially Trebuchet MS), and all the editors I use support them. I just find
them much more readable to my eyes than monospaced. Except in a terminal where
apps assume monospaced font - so that's where Consolas shines.

------
degski
Did anyone look at some code in Visual Studio with this font.

You'll be surprised how `!=` looks like with this font (C++), it's pretty cool
[and I've never seen anything like it before]!

~~~
guessmyname
> _You 'll be surprised how `!=` looks like with this font […]_

For anyone curious, you can see it here [1] _(check the last character)_.

[1] [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/cascadia-
code/ma...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/cascadia-
code/master/images/cascadia-code-characters.png)

~~~
throwaway8941
Not the best decision I think, too much resemblance to the division assignment
operator:

    
    
        x /= 10;

~~~
degski
The last character guessmyname refers to is what '/=' looks like.

------
teilo
Pet peeve: I think anyone designing a terminal / code font in 2019 should be
including Powerline glyphs.

~~~
WorldMaker
[https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-
code/issues/10](https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/issues/10)

[http://feeds.hanselman.com/~/606974448/0/scotthanselman~Patc...](http://feeds.hanselman.com/~/606974448/0/scotthanselman~Patching-
the-new-Cascadia-Code-to-include-Powerline-Glyphs-and-other-Nerd-Fonts-for-
the-Windows-Terminal.aspx)

------
ctvo
am I the only person who has trouble imagining what a font will look like from
just a row of alphanumeric characters? I'm always wishing for a screenshot of
it used in complex editor situations when these posts pop up.

~~~
dole
No, being just a little unsatisfied with Consolas, I thought this might be the
answer, until I loaded it up in VSCode. A little too serif-y.

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marco_craveiro
This font looks great on Emacs, going to move away from Inconsolata!

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mvts
No umlaute - can't use it. Looks nice though.

~~~
subbz
Check out PragmataPro. Has everything a man needs.

~~~
m3andros
That's a cool font! Have you tried Operator by Hoefler Text?

Source: [https://www.typography.com/blog/introducing-
operator](https://www.typography.com/blog/introducing-operator)

------
michaelchris
Still can't beat Iosevka Slab.

------
locusm
Keen to try this and see how it stacks up against Dank Mono.

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sakesun
Just tried Cascadia Code with Emacs. I think Monofur is still better for me.
Larger, easier to read, and even more number of text lines shown on screen.

~~~
GordonS
> Larger...more number of text lines shown on screen

Surely that's down to the font size, which you can change?

~~~
sakesun
In general, you cannot have Larger text with more number of text lines at the
same time.

With Monofur the text are wider and more clear, and, for the same vertical
space, more number of lines than Cascadia.

------
vaikrunta
This is a good looking font. Will use it for a while. :)

------
archie2
Been using this font as my daily driver for a few days now - switched from
Iosevka to this and I'll be using it for the foreseable future.

Great work Microsoft!

------
nitinreddy88
After long time, I found a font which is really eye soothing for windows
terminal.

If Powerline support gets added, it will be one of the best.

~~~
dstaley
Scott Hanselman actually published a video on using Cascadia with Powerline!
[1]

[1] [https://youtu.be/oHhiMf_6exY](https://youtu.be/oHhiMf_6exY)

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abakus
It is a nice font, but a bit too wide for my taste.

------
johncoltrane
And not other uses?

