Re: master d014a5e: Use fixed-pitch font for display-line-numbers

[Alex <agrambot@gmail.com>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com>
>> Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 01:07:21 +0700
>> Cc: Mark Oteiza <mvoteiza@udel.edu>, Emacs developers <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
>> 
>> On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 10:57 PM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>> 
>> >> Maybe, but the name ‘fixed-pitch-serif’ suggests a particular
>> >> presentation (a serif font), while ‘fixed-pitch’ does not.
>> >
>> > AFAIU, fixed-pitch just means Sans Serif, so it is also a particular
>> > presentation in that sense.
>> 
>> The name ‘fixed-pitch’ literally means only the fixedness of pitch and
>> says nothing about presence or absence of serifs.
>
> The name alone might suggest that, but the code tells a different
> story.  I thought you looked in the code and saw there something I
> missed, thus my questions.

Where does the code tell a different story? If you mean
`face-font-family-alternatives', then I believe it is faulty (see
below).

>> > And fixed-pitch definitely doesn't yield the
>> > same font as the default face on my system.
>> 
>> I would suggest that is a bug.
>
> It's not a bug, since the code was written to produce that effect.  (I
> think similar issue happens in the NS build.)

You're using Windows, correct? I just tried out Emacs 25.2 on a Windows
partition and I believe this a bug on Windows. I can't say anything
about the NS build.

In Emacs 25.2 on Windows 7, the default face is Courier New, a serif
font. GNU/Linux defaults to DejaVu Sans Mono, a sans-serif font. I don't
see why Windows should default to a serif font. FWIW, I checked a couple
of other popular text editors (Sublime and Atom), and they default to
Consolas (sans-serif) on Windows.

The bigger issue here is that fixed-pitch-serif on Windows defaults to a
sans-serif font (Consolas), and that fixed-pitch defaults to a serif
font (Courier -- not Courier New like the default font).

I believe the following should happen:

  * the defaults for the default face and fixed-pitch should align on
    all systems possible

  * fixed-pitch should default to what fixed-pitch serif does now
    (Consolas seems suitable)

  * fixed-pitch-serif should default to what the default face does
    currently

If this is done, then changing the line-number face to plain "Monospace"
should work fine even for Windows.