GNU bug report logs - #33967
[Feature Request] Use proportional fonts in Info-mode

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Message #8 received at 33967 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Alan Mackenzie <acm <at> muc.de>
To: "Alex Griffin" <a <at> ajgrf.com>
Cc: 33967 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#33967: [Feature Request] Use proportional fonts in Info-mode
Date: 3 Jan 2019 21:23:21 -0000

Hello, Alex.

In article <mailman.6730.1546547831.1284.bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org> you wrote:
> Right now Emacs' built-in info viewer renders almost everything using
> the default face. I can set the default face to a proportional font and
> read most manuals just fine, but sometimes fixed-width fonts are
> assumed. Try using a proportional font on "(ledger3)Register Report"
> for example. It renders terribly in Emacs even though texinfo's html
> output successfully mixes proportional and fixed-width fonts [1].

> It would be nice to improve it by using proportional fonts where
> appropriate, and fixed-width fonts only where necessary. This would
> improve readability and better match texinfo's html output.

I'm happy to do without such "improvements", taking advantage of the high
readability of my terminal's fixed width font.  I take it you really mean
"have the option of using proportional fonts".  I've nothing against
that.

I'm not sure whether proportional fonts really do improve readability.
My standard test is to use such a font to display the notional C
fragment: "Legal||Illegal" and check that what's displayed isn't just an
indistinguishable mass of vertical lines between legible characters.

However, you're probably aware that TexInfo formats text into lines, with
line breaks.  These may not display well with proportional fonts.

I'm wholly unconvinced that making Info "better match" HTML is at all
worthwhile.  Where's the advantage in such a match, even supposing it is
possible?

> Thanks,
> -- 
> Alex Griffin

> [1]: https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Register-Report

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

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