bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

In browsers one need only hit CTRL++ and CTRL+- to increase and decrease
font size.

Emacs lacks corresponding keys to do the same.

In emacs one can still change the font size via the menus, but it is
more complicated than the simple _one click_ "+" and "-" buttons in
browsers' menus.

In emacs there is no way to simply say "make the font bigger, now" like
one can do in browsers. Emacs wants to know what font you wish to make
what size. One cannot just tell emacs "the current font" and "the next
bigger size".

So there ought to be keys provided to do that.

What luck, C-+ (C-=) is undefined. And
C-- runs the command negative-argument. It is bound to -, C--, M--, C-M--.
Well it is already on "-", so could surely kindly part with its C-- for the
greater good.

emacs-version "26.3"

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson
>  <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 07:59:54 +0800
> 
> In emacs there is no way to simply say "make the font bigger, now" like
> one can do in browsers. Emacs wants to know what font you wish to make
> what size. One cannot just tell emacs "the current font" and "the next
> bigger size".
> 
> So there ought to be keys provided to do that.

There are: "C-x C-+" and "C-x C--".  In Emacs 27, there's also
C-wheel-up and C-wheel-down.

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

EZ> There are: "C-x C-+" and "C-x C--".  In Emacs 27, there's also
EZ> C-wheel-up and C-wheel-down.

OK very good.
Problem is: User uses it. Says "Ah, now I've got it perfect."
But there is no additional command to spit out some lisp that he can
paste in his .emacs file to make his changes permanent to the next
session.

No consideration is made that the user might want to save his changes.

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[Eli Zaretskii]

tags 38699 notabug
close 38699
thanks

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Cc: 38699@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2019 08:43:33 +0800
> 
> >>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> EZ> There are: "C-x C-+" and "C-x C--".  In Emacs 27, there's also
> EZ> C-wheel-up and C-wheel-down.
> 
> OK very good.
> Problem is: User uses it. Says "Ah, now I've got it perfect."
> But there is no additional command to spit out some lisp that he can
> paste in his .emacs file to make his changes permanent to the next
> session.

That's because these commands are explicitly meant for temporary or
transient changes, and their effect is buffer-local.

If you want to change/customize the _default_ font, there's the
Options->Set Default Font menu-bar item, and after selecting a new
font size (or an entirely new font), you can select Options->Save
Options, and have the change written into your init file.

So I don't see a bug here, and I'm therefore closing this bug report.

> No consideration is made that the user might want to save his changes.

Please in the future try giving us a bit more credit, TIA.

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

Yup proving my point that he cannot change the font size permanently to
something that he can maintain without help from the menus (#38696).

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Cc: 38699@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2019 08:28:16 +0800
> 
> Yup proving my point that he cannot change the font size permanently to
> something that he can maintain without help from the menus (#38696).

Those menu items run the commands menu-set-font and
menu-bar-options-save, respectively, and you can invoke them via the
keyboard, of course.

bug#38699: Simple keystrokes to change font size

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

Keyboard or not, they still have the word "menu" in them.

bug#38699: `text-scale-increase', `menu-set-font', and sexps

[Eduardo Ochs]

Hi all,

Let me take Dan Jacobson's proposal one step further. I changed the
subject of the thread, so here is a link to his message:

  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2019-12/msg00897.html

I use a laptop with a screen resolution that is low compared to modern
standards - 1280x800 - and because of that I prefer to choose my Emacs
fonts by hand from the ones listed by:

  xlsfonts | grep -v ^- | sort | uniq

When I want to change to another font I usually run `M-x font', that
displays a temporary buffer with the sexps below (plus some cruft):

  (set-frame-font "5x7")
  (set-frame-font "fixed")
  (set-frame-font "6x13")
  (set-frame-font "9x15")
  (set-frame-font "10x20")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 7")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 9")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 10")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 11")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 12")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 22")

and I choose a font, or try the fonts, from there by typing `M-e' on a
sexp; my `M-e' is roughly equivalent `C-e C-x C-e'.

I spent about one hour playing with the functions in
lisp/face-remap.el - `text-scale-increase' and friends - a few days
ago, but I didn't get very far...

Please, please, PLEASE, make them more hacker-friendly! AFAICT the
current comments in lisp/face-remap.el don't even say how we can play
with `face-remapping-alist' in low-level ways...

By the way, I just played a bit with the source code of
`menu-set-font' at

  (describe-function 'menu-set-font)

using this,

  (fboundp     'x-select-font)
  (setq myfont (x-select-font))
  (setq myfont (mouse-select-font))
  myfont

and I realized that I don't know how to convert the value of myfont -
a #<font-spec ...> thing - into something that has a read-able syntax.
Hints very welcome, and sorry if this is something that everybody is
supposed to know =).

  Cheers & thanks in advance,
    Eduardo Ochs
    http://angg.twu.net/#eev
    http://angg.twu.net/emacsconf2019.html
    http://angg.twu.net/e/emacs.e.html#menu-set-font
    http://angg.twu.net/e/emacs.e.html#text-scale-increase


On Sat, 21 Dec 2019 at 21:44, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:
>
> >>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
> EZ> There are: "C-x C-+" and "C-x C--".  In Emacs 27, there's also
> EZ> C-wheel-up and C-wheel-down.
>
> OK very good.
> Problem is: User uses it. Says "Ah, now I've got it perfect."
> But there is no additional command to spit out some lisp that he can
> paste in his .emacs file to make his changes permanent to the next
> session.
>
> No consideration is made that the user might want to save his changes.

bug#38699: `text-scale-increase', `menu-set-font', and sexps

[arthur miller]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3365 bytes --]

I set my font in after-make-frame hook in init file. I set size, scale and type. It is also possible to set your default font settings with elisp in customize.

There is about a month old Reddit thread in /r/Emacs where both methods are posted with code you can copy-paste to your init file.

Hope it helps.

Merry Christmas!

Skickat från min Samsung Galaxy-smartphone.



-------- Originalmeddelande --------
Från: Eduardo Ochs <eduardoochs@gmail.com>
Datum: 2019-12-24 19:37 (GMT+01:00)
Till: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
Kopia: 38699@debbugs.gnu.org
Ämne: bug#38699: `text-scale-increase', `menu-set-font', and sexps

Hi all,

Let me take Dan Jacobson's proposal one step further. I changed the
subject of the thread, so here is a link to his message:

  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2019-12/msg00897.html

I use a laptop with a screen resolution that is low compared to modern
standards - 1280x800 - and because of that I prefer to choose my Emacs
fonts by hand from the ones listed by:

  xlsfonts | grep -v ^- | sort | uniq

When I want to change to another font I usually run `M-x font', that
displays a temporary buffer with the sexps below (plus some cruft):

  (set-frame-font "5x7")
  (set-frame-font "fixed")
  (set-frame-font "6x13")
  (set-frame-font "9x15")
  (set-frame-font "10x20")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 7")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 9")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 10")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 11")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 12")
  (set-frame-font "Monospace 22")

and I choose a font, or try the fonts, from there by typing `M-e' on a
sexp; my `M-e' is roughly equivalent `C-e C-x C-e'.

I spent about one hour playing with the functions in
lisp/face-remap.el - `text-scale-increase' and friends - a few days
ago, but I didn't get very far...

Please, please, PLEASE, make them more hacker-friendly! AFAICT the
current comments in lisp/face-remap.el don't even say how we can play
with `face-remapping-alist' in low-level ways...

By the way, I just played a bit with the source code of
`menu-set-font' at

  (describe-function 'menu-set-font)

using this,

  (fboundp     'x-select-font)
  (setq myfont (x-select-font))
  (setq myfont (mouse-select-font))
  myfont

and I realized that I don't know how to convert the value of myfont -
a #<font-spec ...> thing - into something that has a read-able syntax.
Hints very welcome, and sorry if this is something that everybody is
supposed to know =).

  Cheers & thanks in advance,
    Eduardo Ochs
    http://angg.twu.net/#eev
    http://angg.twu.net/emacsconf2019.html
    http://angg.twu.net/e/emacs.e.html#menu-set-font
    http://angg.twu.net/e/emacs.e.html#text-scale-increase


On Sat, 21 Dec 2019 at 21:44, 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:
>
> >>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
> EZ> There are: "C-x C-+" and "C-x C--".  In Emacs 27, there's also
> EZ> C-wheel-up and C-wheel-down.
>
> OK very good.
> Problem is: User uses it. Says "Ah, now I've got it perfect."
> But there is no additional command to spit out some lisp that he can
> paste in his .emacs file to make his changes permanent to the next
> session.
>
> No consideration is made that the user might want to save his changes.




[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 5353 bytes --]