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

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

On 2020-10-14, 06:05 +0200, Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote:

> Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net> writes:
>
>> I tried this, and the mode-line looks much nicer indeed,
>> but this improvement is unusable because the mode-line jumps
>> left and right when the buffer is saved, the cursor is moved, etc.
>
> Do you use a variable-pitch font that has different widths for the
> digits?  I didn't think that would be an issue in practice.  What font
> do you use?

To add to Juri's comment, many typefaces I tested exhibit this
jumpiness: Roboto, FiraGO, Inter, Noto Sans, Open Sans, DejaVu Sans…

I have column-number-mode enabled.  Typing this makes the modeline's
text shift slightly to the left and right, as if it were pulsing.  It is
due to the column count changing.  The effect may be fairly minor, but
is noticeable enough for me not to be able to tolerate it in its current
state.

The effect would be more pronounced (to my eyes, anyway), whenever I
would work towards the bottom of the window, where the text I type is
closer to the modeline.

Perhaps some modeline fields that change often can have a fixed length?

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
protesilaos.com