Introducing Cobra

[Ralph Shumaker]

Andrew Lentvorski wrote:
> Ralph Shumaker wrote:
>> I never understood why spaces and tabs cannot be displayed with 
>> something visible.
>
> Because a tab is not a printing character, it is a *control* 
> character, and its semantics are poorly defined.
>
> Tab is *not* just n spaces.  It is "move the head/platen to tab stop" 
> and "tab stop" is defined by the end user.

Be that as it may, that still doesn't address ASCII 032 not having the 
option of being visible so as to visually be able to differentiate it 
from a tab, on screen that is.  On the printouts, I would prefer things 
be as they are, except maybe being able to tell the printer to use the 
computer's definition of the tab.  I think someone mentioned that the 
printer *always* uses 8.

>
>> I like when the 0 (zero) is made distinctive with a dot in the 
>> middle.  I never liked that 0 looks so similar to O and in some 
>> places are almost indistinguishable from one another.  The 1 and the 
>> l (and sometimes I) are almost as bad.  There is no reason why they 
>> have to look that much alike.
>
> What you want is called a programming font.
> http://keithdevens.com/wiki/ProgrammerFonts

I'm not so sure I necessarily want "A font for programming must be 
monospaced", but the rest of the description sounds great!  I like 
monospace in email (especially when doing or viewing ASCII art).  I like 
monospace on the command line, vim, but probably not in Firefox.

I'll check it out.

But I distinctly remember on my Amiga computer being able to modify 
fonts myself.  And a quick search for "linux font editor" thru Vivísimo, 
the first page of 20 results netted 9 pages of interest.

>
>> Come to think of it, does anyone know how I can modify the fonts that 
>> show up in gnome terminal and vim, and even the console while I'm at 
>> it, and any other fonts that are used by programs like firefox and 
>> thunderbird?  Come to think of it, I can't be the only one who has 
>> ever wanted such a thing.  Is anyone aware of fonts already so modified?
>
> No *font* modification is capable of delivering that behavior.
>
> -a

"that" behavior?  Are you talking specifically about the console?  If 
so, when my computer boots up, while linux is loading, near the 
beginning, I see the fonts change.  I don't know what causes that 
change.  It happens in an instant, and I'm usually not paying specific 
attention to see the change.  Maybe the screen resolution was changed 
slightly for some reason causing an *appearance* of change of font.  And 
several of the font editors I found above seem to suggest that they can 
modify the console font.

But I don't see why any of the other fonts I mentioned should be 
untouchable.  It would be nice to have all fonts on my system show a dot 
or a slash in the zero.  It would be nice them all have a very short 
horizontal half roof on the left side of a vertical line for the lower 
case L (whether it has a base or not, I don't care).  It would be nice 
for all fonts on my system to have a down sloping half roof on the left 
side of a vertical line with a full base for the number one.  It would 
be nice for them all to have a vertical line with the top half replaced 
by a small but visible dot for a lower case I and an upper case I that 
looks like the cross section of an I-beam.

But just as nice, I would like to have fonts that have a space (ASCII 
032) that shows something visible on the screen but is invisible in a 
printout.  Even if tabs don't show anything visible, at least something 
visible for ASCII 032 would visually distinguish it from the tab.

In some situations, I would even like to see something visual for 
end-of-line (particularly in vim and cat).  This is not that big of an 
issue tho because I can use reg ex " $" or "    $".  But it would still 
be nice to see it visually.  With large media nowadays, it's not as big 
an issue, but when I was very tight on space with a program I was 
growing daily, trailing spaces, tho not a problem for the program, were 
a potential problem on storage.  And I don't know why, but I just don't 
like the thought nowadays of a single extra ASCII 032 or tab 
unnecessarily placed at the end of a line causing the file to use up an 
extra cluster.  Several extras making that even _more_ likely.  I 
haven't been tight on space often lately, tho, so I don't feel it as 
strongly at the moment.  Now it's more a matter of the principle of the 
thing.  I suppose I could make a script to use sed to clip trailing 
spaces and tabs, and invoke it only on files of interest.  Maybe even a 
script that examines all files for such trailers and report only the 
ones that contain them.  Hmmm.  Interesting ideas.



-- 
Ralph

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The most arduous task a reformer has to execute, is to make people think; to rouse them from that lethargy, which, like the mantle of sleep, covers them in repose and contentment.
--Noah Webster, 1789