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Comment by davidy123 | Hacker News Reader

I like ligatures, little quirks (relative to ordinary fonts) make output more interesting.

I wanted to get a portable monitor with a high hz rate for VR applications, and separately text test output. The best I could find, without spending too much on something that'll be better in the near future, is 16" 2560×1600. So not very high PPD. Anyone have any suggestions for a font that won't look grainy? I use it in portrait.

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The last thing I want is for my text to look interesting. I want it to be boring and instantly recognizable. I want text editors showing it to work predictably. Two characters should show as two glyphs with the background showing through the middle. All glyphs should be the same width. Ligatures break these universal consistencies and stick out, screaming for attention. I want my text to be absolutely silent.

I find ligatures makes certain symbols instantly recognizable. Two characters, such as "=>" or "<-" look like math symbols, but then it takes one more step to realize no it's an arrow.

I recently started using a font that has ligatures - they don't break alignment of mono-spaced text, for example a two-character ligature takes up the space of two characters. I am not thrown by != showing up as an equals sign with a slash through it, because I can remember that this is in fact "!=". It's easier to read than the "raw" version. All in all I'm sold.

I can remember that the inequality symbol means != but I'd prefer the lower cognitive load of not having to recall anything at all.

I like that Typing "!=" results in "!=" being printed to the screen. I like that pressing backspace only affects the single preceding character/glyph instead of converting the ligature back into its constituent parts.

It's a consistency thing. I'm never reading math textbooks written with latex and all the fancy ligatures and symbols. I spend my entire day reading and writing code, so consistency there is paramount.

I prefer the lower cognitive load of not having to recall that != means ≠.

Weird; I see the former symbol all day every day and have no trouble recalling. I see the second symbol almost never, maybe once a month, definitely not as easy to recall.

That just goes to show how C has perverted mathematical notation.

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