BatGnat has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

This is a simple question about personal choice.
I use ULTRAEDIT 7(NT) for all my editing needs. I would like to know which is the best font to edit with. I would normally use a Bold Arial 12pt, which uses the antialiasing. But I get sick of it sometimes. I need somthing easily readable, that wont annoy me after long sessions.

What do you use||recommend?

BatGnat

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: FONTS
by boo_radley (Parson) on Dec 06, 2000 at 02:41 UTC
    Courier. Courier new.
    I can't imagine programming in anything but a fixed width font.
[reply]
      I concur - I wanted to add the the Arial font is best used for web pages - for that matter, any sans-serif font is easier to read on a screen as the size gets smaller.

      This is an example
      This is an example

      Jeff 

      L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)
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Re: FONTS
by Hrunting (Pilgrim) on Dec 06, 2000 at 03:15 UTC
    Ugh, Courier. Courier New. So fancy. They have all the dangling lines and fancy curves, it becomes a bear to read, especially at the small font sizes required to fit 90 lines of code on a screen. Trust me, try Lucida Console. It's a fixed width font (which should be a requirement for all code), but it's much smoother, with purer curves and more readable design. It's like coding in a modern font like Arial without the proportional nature.
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Re: FONTS
by mdillon (Priest) on Dec 06, 2000 at 03:11 UTC
    i recommend you stop editing code with a proportional font and switch to a fixed-width font.

    people have mentioned Courier and Courier New, both of which are just fine.

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Re: FONTS
by dws (Chancellor) on Dec 06, 2000 at 02:43 UTC
    I use 10pt Courier (not Courier New). You might also try 10pt Lucida Console. It's a taste thing.
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(redmist) Re: FONTS
by redmist (Deacon) on Dec 06, 2000 at 02:44 UTC
    I think that this should probably have been posted under Meditations...but as long as its here...

    I use NEdit and I don't particularly care about the font. I have never had a desire to change it. This, however, should come as no surprise seeing as I am Mechanized and am not concerned with such trivial things as "eye irritation."

    redmist
    Silicon Cowboy
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Re: FONTS
by MeowChow (Vicar) on Dec 06, 2000 at 04:06 UTC
    I prefer coding in Wingdings myself...

    It's great for obfuscating perl :)

[reply]
      Hehe! Excellent! Gotta try that!
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Re: FONTS
by footpad (Abbot) on Dec 06, 2000 at 19:43 UTC
    Personally, I prefer Letter Gothic. It's slightly narrower than Courier and therefore fits more code on a line and I find it a little easier on the eyes.

    update: If you're using Windows and have both Letter Gothic Line and Letter Gothic MT on your system, you may prefer Letter Gothic MT over the Line variant (which doesn't scale very well when using larger point sizes, even with font smoothing enabled).

    If you like the Verdana font being used on many web pages, you might like a free font that Ray Konopka (a leading Delphi expert) provides on his web site. It's fixed-space and works quite nicely when projected across a room.

    --f
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Re: FONTS
by Albannach (Monsignor) on Dec 06, 2000 at 07:18 UTC
    I prefer 8 point Courier (but I'd be willing to switch to 10 point if someone wants to contribute a larger monitor ;-), but whatever it is MUST be fixed width. Lucida Console is certainly nice looking, but I find the letters all start to look alike after 20 or 30 straight hours. Seriously, there have been studies (long ago, which I certainly can't cite), or at least I've imagined studies that have found that you want maximum variation between characters for easiest recognition. This is the reason BLOCK CAPS sucks, and I think it can be extended to Lucida/Courier debate. At least try both for a good period of time before you settle on one.

    As an aside, the editor I find myself using (Notepad+ by Rogier Meurs, not in production but still available though I haven't got a URL handy) allows you to set both prefered fixed and proportional fonts, and flip between them in a flash if you are so inclined (though I'm not). This must be a feature on other editors.

    --
    I'd like to be able to assign to an luser

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Re: FONTS
by YakitoriSD (Initiate) on May 07, 2001 at 01:24 UTC
    if you are on a mac, Monaco...
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