Subject: bug#57962: 29.0.50; Odd font choices

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 17:34:29 +0300

> From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 14:20:06 +0000
> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> 
> Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
> > So there is no way to say "I have font X, give me font Y of the same
> > size".
> 
> Right.  And in Emacs, this stuff tends to stick out more because we are
> firmly in the uncanny valley between having the text rendering
> capabilities of an average web browser (but we are much less advanced)
> and a terminal emulator (but we are much more advanced).

I don't think this is accurate, let alone fair.

AFAIK, an average browser comes with a fixed system-dependent list of
fonts it uses for its various display parts, and doesn't allow users
any freedom in determining typefaces of various display parts, except
by replacing the fixed list of fonts by another fixed list.  There's
AFAIK nothing even close to Emacs's fontsets and faces.

So the job of an average browser is much easier, and the freedom of
its users is much smaller.  IOW, we are trying to solve a much harder
problem.