From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Thu,  5 Oct 1995 10:19:42 -0400
From: howard@plan9.att.com howard@plan9.att.com
Subject: acme font
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 2b729132-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <19951005141942.Z8FGEUc7C0AUmWXdM3ie3siHLR60Vbg52cVRPR88KCo@z>

> I know it's a trivial question, but I guess there is a way to change
> the font in acme.

I suppose you read the man page, and saw the -f and -F options,
but prefer some environmental way of changing the defaults.
Perhaps you should just make a shell function or script to start
acme the way you prefer.

But first: give the proportional font a chance.  You can always
flip a given window between proportional and non-proportional
(execute Font with button 2) if it is critical to see how things line up.

I've been using acme exclusively for years now --- I was the first
non-rob person to do so.  At first, the problems with programming
seem to loom large, but there are two solutions:

() if you are working a program for yourself only: make it look good
  with the proportional font, and the hell with how it looks in
  fixed pitch!

() if you have to collaborate with others, or produce programs that
  look good when printed on paper, develop a programming style
  that needs very few uses of "Font" to see how things line up.
  E.g., I collaborate on a giant ML program with someone who
  doesn't use acme.  Rather than programming in the usual
  ML style (which resembles Lisp style in the attempt to line
  things up with spaces under preceding lines), we use a tab-indenting
  style that is just as easy to read.  And we avoid comments at
  the end of lines.

The additional real-estate advantages of the proportional font
are too great to give up without a fight.  (With my carrera screen,
I can fit three columns of acme comfortably.)

Howard Trickey