From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,de0abe9655235740 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-11-08 04:40:49 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!d9c68f36!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3FACE44D.2050500@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: ACM Ada Letters References: <1065708924.347689@master.nyc.kbcfp.com> <3F864440.7070203@noplace.com> <8pWdnd8im8ToEzeiRVn-iw@gbronline.com> <3FAB95B6.9070008@noplace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2003 12:40:49 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.0.198 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1068295249 209.165.0.198 (Sat, 08 Nov 2003 04:40:49 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2003 04:40:49 PST Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2255 Date: 2003-11-08T12:40:49+00:00 List-Id: Well, it might or might not be more readable. Some of that is subjective judgement. I like fixed fonts because it allows me to make things line up in the source code and that often contributes (in my mind - maybe not others) to better readability. Such as aligning parameter lists so everything is in columns or a series of assignment statements with all the ":=" lined up, etc. Sometimes it helps with identifiers as well if they have fixed size fonts to make parts of the names align. Some of that might just be personal taste or an over-organized mind. (Can you say "Obsessive-Compulsive"? I *like* the way you say that!) How would you propose to get that capability with proportional fonts in some manner that still allowed the source to be compilable? (I might imagine a word processor inserting tab stops and other formatting info into the code, but that's not part of the Ada standard and there isn't any guaranteed way to be sure it would be represented the same way by more than one editor.) That's why sometimes just plain old ASCII with proportional font representation is the best way to go - its simple, easy to implement, consistent across numerous apps, etc., and it lets you control format fairly well. MDC Robert A Duff wrote: > > Why do we write and read source code in fixed-width fonts? > I usually do, and most folks do. > But variable width is certainly more readable. -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m o d c @ a m o g c n i c . r "Trying is the first step towards failure." -- Homer Simpson ======================================================================