From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-Id: <680C3DA2-9DBC-4524-8F6E-31885F9E7446@storytotell.org>
From: Daniel Lyons <fusion@storytotell.org>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
In-Reply-To: <op.uyka0s1y0p3ku8@localhost>
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Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:55:33 -0600
References: <op.uyka0s1y0p3ku8@localhost>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Using proportional fonts in Acme for Programming
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On Aug 13, 2009, at 3:14 AM, Aaron W. Hsu wrote:

> So, I was browsing around the other day looking at Acme resources, =20
> and I discovered an old post from 1995 wherein someone advocated the =20=

> use of proportional fonts for programming in Acme. This surprised =20
> me, to say the least. He even went as far as to mention that SML was =20=

> the language they were using, and had managed to get a decent =20
> indenting pattern for it that was just as readable, without messing =20=

> things up for proportional font users.
>
> I have to admit that I'm a bit skeptical about whether such a =20
> technique actually works, and so, I thought I would pose some =20
> questions to you.

Bjarne Stroustrup actually advocates this style in "The C++ =20
Programming Language."

This discussion reminds me of this elastic tab stops concept:

   http://nickgravgaard.com/elastictabstops/

I don't think it made it into any editors, but it would support the =20
kind of fancy alignment I like to have in my code while also =20
supporting real fonts, which I would prefer to use.

> Thirdly, would you continue using proportional width fonts in cases =20=

> like Lisp code, where you very often see something like the =20
> following indentation scheme, and how would you resolve these =20
> indentation problems with proportional width fonts if you did =20
> continue to use them?
>
> 	(let ([foo bar]
> 	      [something else])
> 	  (some-func (called again)
>                     (with fun indentation)
>            (and yet)
>            (another)))


I bet you could set up Emacs to use a proportional font. It can do =20
anything, right? :)

I'd love it if Acme or Plan 9 had good support for some kind of Lisp =20
variant.

=97
Daniel Lyons