Re: How to make Emacs popular again: Use monospaced fonts less

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 12:54:06 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > The number of digits in the line number can change a lot if you jump
> > to another place with M-g g or C-x C-x or some other similar command.
> 
> That's true, but is also the case today (in huge files).

Yes, but with variable-pitch fonts, it will happen more frequently,
because the width of a space is typically different in these fonts
from the width of digit characters.

> I think the only way to see whether it's annoying or not is to try
> it out on people and see what they say.

I've seen complaints about similar behavior in other contexts, that's
why I raised the issue.

> > And what about the "All/Top/Bot/NN%" part?
> 
> Ditto.

No: these are all 3-character wide, so they take a fixed-width space
with fixed-pitch fonts.  Now it won't.

> > And then there are optional displays, like display-time-mode etc.
> 
> All the ones that display numbers (and don't change between numbers and
> non-numerical data) aren't affected in any reasonable font.

display-time-mode shows AM and PM, though.

> I think we should just gather some feedback first and see what's
> annoying and what isn't.

We _are_ getting feedback: you've got mine ;-)

And others are encouraged to express their views as well.

> I've now used this for hours :-), and the only thing I've noticed
> being even remotely odd is the U:** switching to U:--, which takes
> much less space and draws the eye.

Using :align-to is simple, and could even simplify the mode-line
construction: instead of carefully counting spaces, you will need just
one space with a suitable :align-to.  So I'm not really sure why this
needs an argument.