

A true proportional font terminal for Linux and Unix - JonathanHayward
http://jonathanscorner.com/proportional-terminal/
In the heyday of the mainframe, accessing a computer meant using a console or terminal with no choice but columns of text in a fixed-width font. Now that is the wave of the past, and every major website, and most minor websites run with a clue, use good proportional fonts. The last stronghold is the terminal, and normal terminal programs will not let you use a fixed-width font. This page tells HOWTO hack Ajaxterm to serve as a terminal with true proportional fonts.
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thristian
The main problem with using a proportional font for terminals is that so many
programs use spaces and tabs to align text in different rows to better convey
the structure of the information they present.

A secondary problem is that the control sequences that tell the terminal where
to move the cursor are all defined in a grid-based coördinate system - if the
terminal receives a "move the cursor down one line" sequence, its new position
will be different depending on whether you choose to conserve the horizontal
coordinate measured in characters or in pixels.

Of course, it would be perfectly possible to design a terminal whose control
sequences made no such assumptions, but the DEC VT100 and its multitudinous
offspring have been with us for a very long time now, and probably always will
be.

~~~
junklight
yes.

While I program in a proportional font - given that code is what I spend most
of my time staring at, it being readable makes a big difference - I still have
my terminal sessions in fixed space fonts. Far too many things assume that it
is being displayed this way.

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jcdreads
Aquamacs Emacs (<http://aquamacs.org>) also lets you use a proportional font,
and hey, it's emacs. It is, indeed, sometimes very nice, particularly when
writing prose (Markdown or HTML or whatever), and particularly in version
2.0's new fullscreen mode.

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z8000
I suppose, maybe, for code this might work if one uses tab-stops to align
braces, identifiers, etc. Lisp wins again I suppose! Heh.

