

Top Programming Fonts - danbenjamin
http://hivelogic.com/articles/view/top-10-programming-fonts

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spoondan
By my reckoning, six of the ten have major flaws that make them completely
unacceptable for use as a programming font. Courier, Profont, Consolas, and
Incosolata all have insufficient distinctions between 'l' (lowercase L) and
'1' (one). Droid Sans Mono has an 'O' (uppercase O) that can pass for '0'
(zero). Perhaps by virtue of the font size, Proggy has a lowercase L that can
pass for a vertical bar at a glimpse. If you look closely, Proggy's lowercase
L looks like a one -- this is less of an issue because it is visually distinct
from Proggy's one glyph, but I still don't like it.

~~~
lallysingh
For day-to-day programming, why does l/1, O/0 matter? I usually don't see them
in contexts where they could be confused.

~~~
spoondan
A few cases that have occurred over the years:

1\. Working with inherited code, one of the original programmers had an
identifier I _believed_ was "el" (short for "element") but that was actually
"e1" (presumably short for "element 1"). You don't know frustration until your
compiler tells you "undefined identifier 'el'" when, by all appearances,
there's nothing wrong with your code. Not only did I waste a couple of hours
on this, but the stress probably shortened my life by a few hours, too.

2\. Embarrassingly enough: For reasons that I don't understand, I have on a
couple of occasions typed a zero where I meant to type an uppercase 'O'. I
shipped Python code that had a bug in it because I assigned a value to
"box0ffset" instead of "boxOffset". The bug was thankfully minor, and I
obviously must have been smoking crack to make this typo, but it has happened
and could have been avoided if I'd been using a good font.

3\. I've seen C code (I think in an open source project) where the programmer
typed something along the lines of "100l". He probably meant to type "100L"
and just missed the SHIFT key. By this time, I'd switched to a font that had
an "l" that was clearly distinct from a "1", but I imagine that I would have
otherwise been utterly perplexed.

These are probably not everyday examples. The circumstances in which confusion
is possible are rare. But they _do_ happen and are (in some sense) expensive.
At the very least, it's a whole class of errors that's easily and cheaply
avoided by choosing an attractive font that minimizes the opportunities for
confusion. Why risk the frustration?

~~~
pavel_lishin
I always thought it was amusing that the 3 is right above the 3, and the 0
above the o. I've made a few "leet-speak" errors in the past just due to
finger-slips.

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ashleyw
I love 'Bitstream Vera Sans Mono'. I've tried tons of fonts, but always fall
back on that. I use Ruby a lot, and it complements the language nicely…

~~~
bittersweet
Indeed, I've been using this font since watching the railscasts by Ryan Bates
and it's great. I was using the standard Monaco before.

I don't know why but switching to a new font made me a happier programmer!

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callahad
For whatever reason, I can't stand how Windows or FreeType anti-alias
Inconsolata. But on a Mac, it's dreamy.

It is, however, somewhat annoying when I exuberantly recommend a typeface,
only to see it become rather unusable when rendered by another system.

~~~
benreesman
if you like inconsolata on the mac, try consolas which is very similar but in
my opinion just a little bit more aesthetically pleasing.

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itodd
Terminus is by far my favorite. I am disappointed it was not mentioned.

<http://fractal.csie.org/~eric/wiki/Terminus_font>

apt-get install xfonts-terminus

~~~
bitwize
The only real alternative to Terminus is LispM font:

<http://www.eurogaran.com/downloads/lispmfont/>

A similar appearance! The CADR was dreamy in many ways, even its screen font.

Downside: only one size...

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moe
_In the past, we’ve had to decide between tiny monospace fonts or jagged
edges. But today, modern operating systems do a great job of anti-aliasing,
making monospace fonts look great at any size. It’s not 1990 anymore. Give
your tired eyes a break and bump up that font size._

No, thanks. All the anti-aliased screenshots in his post look blurry and some
make me outright cringe.

Also he missed my personal favorite:
<http://www.netalive.org/tinkering/triskweline/>

~~~
Semiapies
That's a good-looking font, but I personally need a big visual distinction,
like a slash or a dot, between O's and 0's. (I do like the distinction between
l's and 1's, though - lots of fonts screw that up.)

~~~
moe
Well, I think I would prefer a slashed zero for confidence, too, but can't say
this has ever been an issue in my years of real world use.

~~~
Semiapies
That's why I said "I personally". :)

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chaosmachine
Colsolas was the best thing to come out of Vista. In fact, it's the only thing
I kept when I switched back to XP, and later, to OS X.

~~~
wolverian
I used Consolas for ages, but now switched back to DejaVu Mono, mostly because
it's thinner horizontally.

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jussij
I like Consolas, but when I first tried it I thought it was rubbish.

It turns out the problem was my Windows box had Clear Type font smoothing
disabled.

So make sure you have Clear Type enabled:

<http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4449#4449>

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daeken
No mention of Dina? That's a shame. I love Proggy, but Dina is much more
readable IMO. (It's on the Proggy site as well)

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jasongullickson
ProFont - what other font is easily readable down to 6pt?

~~~
benreesman
upvoted because profont is simply lovely, but i can't get it to work
reasonably on the mac.

switched first to inconsolata, but i like consolas a little bit better.

~~~
jasongullickson
I haven't tried it on the Mac yet only because I don't have a way to unstuff
it w/o enduring that horrible stuffit website...

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yan
Pragmata is absolutely wonderful on OS X IMHO
(<http://www.fsd.it/fonts/pragma.htm>)

It's kinda pricey, but so beautiful when sized and anti-aliased right.

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caffo
Tried all of them, still using LuxiMono.. love it.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas_aylott/294076124/>

<http://wiki.macromates.com/Main/AlternativeFonts>

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dhotson
I used to use Bitstream Vera Sana Mono but I switched to using Liberation
Mono, it was released for free by the red hat guys.
<https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/>

I'd recommend both, but I like Liberation Mono more.

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jballanc
Also in the category of improved Vera family fonts is Espresso, which ships
with the web editor of the same name (<http://macrabbit.com/espresso/>).

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projecktzero
I used Anonymous for a while, but then I switched to Consolas. I'm not sure if
Anonymous is free or not. One site wants to charge you for it, and another has
it for free(no, not the Pirate Bay!).

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rbanffy
Call me ancient, but I really miss the 3278, with its distinctive 6's and 9's.
I never could find its original bitmaps, much less a vector font like it.

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grinich
I've been using Panic Sans for a while. It ships with Coda and you can grab it
out of the application package.

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smhinsey
I am a big fan of Envy Type R.

~~~
anovaskulk
You probably mean Envy Code R? And yes, it's a great font. I wouldn't use any
other.

~~~
smhinsey
haha, yeah, that is an embarrassing mixup. i even use it under linux and os x
these days.

