Devs using font ligatures, what's the selling point?

I've just enabled them in my editor and I don't really get it. Is it because it makes code shorter and easier to read?

Comments

[Cristian Pallarés]

it just looks nicer 👌

[Michael De Abreu]

This is mostly about what it is. There is nothing else to add, but that the look of anything is subjective, so give it a try, and see if you like it. Once I started using Fira Code, I didn't look back.

[MN Mark]

I'd never heard of this, had to look it up; my reaction: Get off my 7-bit lawn!

I almost started to think it made sense in concept, but after seeing examples it looks terrible. It's unnecessary added complexity.

[Andrew Bastin]

Well, I basically use it (basically Fira Code) to correct irregularities due to different fonts...

For example, fat arrows usually kinda looks wierd and off in some fonts...

I kinda get an itch when things look a tad off... 😅

[Weston Wedding]

I'm personally with Mathew Butterick on these.

Q: Ligatures in programming fonts? A: Hell no

He's kinda harsh and absolutist but I'm on board with his points.

[Nick Taylor]

I like the look of it, plain and simple. I use it for my editor and for my terminal. I recently switched from Fira Code to Dank Mono. Fira Code is still a great font, but I just fell in love with the look of Dank Mono and for the first time in my life, I paid for a font.

ℕ𝕚𝕔𝕜 𝕋𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕣

@nickytonline

Seeing if I can make my code dank. Just purchased @_philpl's Dank Mono, dank.sh. Aside from ligatures and cursive which are awesome, I really love the non-italicized lowercase f. Great work! #DankAllTheThings

01:09 AM - 30 Apr 2018

221

In that same thread Ken Wheeler sums it up best.

Ken Wheeler

@ken_wheeler

@polecalm @nickytonline @_philpl I mean, you look at it 8hrs a day. Id rather look at something I like.

01:17 AM - 30 Apr 2018

02

There's also an egghead.io podcast episode, Phil Pluckthun, Creator of Dank Mono that some might find an interesting listen.

Here's my full dev setup if you're interested.

My Visual Studio Code Setup

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#visualstudiocode#developertools#texteditor#vscode

My Mac Setup

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#productivity#developertools#webdev

[John Alcher]

I used to be huge into font ligatures too, then PHP came and suddenly ::, ->, and => looks awkward as hell :/

[Dan]

I think its personal cognitive aesthetic much like color themes. That said, I find that cursive keywords breaks things up a bit and gives me better visual cues. But to each their own. Also Fira Code iScript is amazing IMO.

[Peter Tasker]

FYI, Fira Code is the font if you want to give it a go.

[Quentin Sonrel]

I tried it recently, I disabled it after a few minutes, I absolutely do not see the point of it (and I don't like it very much either).

[Jonathan Irvin]

I like pretty shapes.