monospaced fonts

[David E. Wheeler]

On Feb 26, 2009, at 5:00 AM, Bowerbird at aol.com wrote:


> 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.)


No, but it's the expectation with Markdown that you'll use a  
monospaced font.


> 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.


I agree that the formatting of a table should be implicit as much as  
possible.


> 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.


If Steve wrote markdown, or wrote code, he's use a monospaced font,  
because it's the right tool for the job.

Best,

David