> The use of? monospace fonts > is an expectation for reading Markdown. > Really, it's the whole point.um... no. going way back to "triumph of the nerds", the number-one example steve jobs used to symbolize the absence of any esthetics at microsoft (and thus -- by extension -- inside the head of bill gates) was the fact they found a monospaced font acceptable. it all goes back to a calligraphy class that jobs "dropped in on" while he was at reed. no. if you have a mac, and you're using a monospace font, you _missed_ the point. you missed the _whole_ point. -bowerbird ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/attachments/20090226/47c2ef19/attachment.html>
On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 6:47 AM, <Bowerbird at aol.com> wrote:> no. if you have a mac, and you're using a > monospace font, you _missed_ the point. >If you're using a Mac and you're *noy* using a monospaced font for presenting information in which it is important if things line up neatly with other things, you're violating a vital and central tenet of Apple design philosophy. And, no, that is not, "Whatever I want to do is what the right way is." Because that's just dumb. It's "Use the right tool for the job, generally the one that conveys the most embedded information without undue differentiation; elegance, simplicity, efficiency." If you're using a Mac and you're using a monospaced font, you're using a very pretty one that has aesthetic chops, it's insanely regular, and it looks the same as far as arrangement no matter who wrote it and what platform it was generated on. And so, it works with rare fluidity in these days of crying, stomping your feet, and pouting like an immature baboon. If you're going to be trying to communicate structure that requires intuitive, simple understanding of formatted output, you'll be using a monospace font, so that my table and your table while being visually indistinguishable don't turn out different output. "Principle of Least Surprise." You should look it up, sometime. Do you a lot of good, I think. Seems rather obvious, really, dunnit? -- Alexander Williams (thantos at gmail.com) Operation BSU (http://operationbsu.livejournal.com) "Like a morning show. Only interesting. And at night." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/attachments/20090226/939d6320/attachment.htm>
> no. if you have a mac, and you're using a > monospace font, you _missed_ the point.i beg to differ i use a mac (in fact, I __love__ it), but also use text editors, email (plain text), and I post on a dozen or so blogs using marsedit + markdown filter + markdown parsing on the blog platforms not having monospace fonts would be a huge nuissance in text editors plus, let us not forget that there is a certain aesthetic in the abstract environment of plain text editing (yes, unix shell as well) cheers Andreas Triantafillidis
alexander said:> If you're using a Mac and you're > _noy_?using a monospaced font > for presenting information in which > it is important if things line up neatly > with other things, you're violating a...there's no reason to have a protracted thread on this topic, so i'll try not to pick nits here... i agree with your (obvious) general point that -- when it is important that things "line up neatly" -- you should make sure things "line up neatly". (and once again, for the monospace font people:) i agree with your (obvious) general point that -- if it is important that things "line up neatly" -- you should make sure things "line up neatly". i hope you will agree with _my_ obvious counter: monospaced fonts aren't the only way to do that. indeed, they aren't even the most _common_ way. (that distinction still goes to the old-fashioned tab, by which i mean computation of the point to write.) in reference to the actual topic of the actual thread, if anyone were to write a markdown authoring-tool -- my favorite is still "showdown", it's very cool -- you'll discover that it's fairly easy to support tables. (even ones that are relatively complex, layout-wise; for instance, determining defaults for alignment is very simple, and they almost always work correctly.) you just discern the columns, size them appropriately, determine cell alignment, and write text at proper spot. so the regular emergence of this thread, reminiscent of punxsatawney phil the groundhog, is really unnecessary.> If you're using a Mac and you're using a monospaced font, > you're using a very pretty one that has?aesthetic?chops, it's > insanely regular, and it looks the same as far as arrangement > no matter?who?wrote it and what platform it was?generated?on.if you say so. but i think most monospaced fonts look pretty much the same, since it's impossible for me to ignore their disastrous kerning... but i don't care. use monospace all day. just don't tell steve, ok? might interfere with his recovery, and we all need him back soon. -bowerbird ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/attachments/20090226/bfd844cd/attachment.html>