From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: if vs. when vs. and: style question Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 09:00:41 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <80c1b614-ad00-48b1-96fd-546b9ba17011@default> References: <87sicvwckx.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> <87wq27yvqg.fsf@debian.uxu> <8d531e99-7260-4263-ac99-09c6871e2708@googlegroups.com> <87vbhq53lf.fsf@debian.uxu> <87a8z23p23.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87lhilx0cf.fsf@debian.uxu> <87twx9360u.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <0d1d19ab-06e9-462d-8867-9a49b1e232d3@googlegroups.com> <87pp7x2jav.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87d23s4nt4.fsf@debian.uxu> <7e8ddf8f-163a-4d16-9ce2-25b0cb3f35aa@googlegroups.com> <878uefdhkt.fsf@wanadoo.es> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1427644905 30852 80.91.229.3 (29 Mar 2015 16:01:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 16:01:45 +0000 (UTC) To: =?utf-8?B?w5NzY2FyIEZ1ZW50ZXM=?= , help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 29 18:01:31 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1YcFeT-0003Ue-3P for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 18:01:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:57510 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YcFeR-0004IB-Vv for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:01:28 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:38006) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YcFdm-0003Da-RW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:00:47 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YcFdj-0001C5-Lx for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:00:46 -0400 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:37569) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YcFdj-0001Bv-GK for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 12:00:43 -0400 Original-Received: from userv0022.oracle.com (userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id t2TG0eOO001172 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sun, 29 Mar 2015 16:00:41 GMT Original-Received: from userv0122.oracle.com (userv0122.oracle.com [156.151.31.75]) by userv0022.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id t2TG0eNL022002 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Sun, 29 Mar 2015 16:00:40 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0016.oracle.com (abhmp0016.oracle.com [141.146.116.22]) by userv0122.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id t2TG0ei4006753; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 16:00:40 GMT In-Reply-To: <878uefdhkt.fsf@wanadoo.es> X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.8.2 (807160) [OL 12.0.6691.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103425 Archived-At: > Some months ago I experimented with using Unicode on my coding. I was > very excited about it. At the end, the experience showed without a doubt > that it is a bad idea. One of the reasons is very familiar to us: a > funtamental feature of a programmer's font is how clearly it > distinguishes 1 from l, 0 from O. Using Unicode makes this problem > explode. +1. That is a problem, in general. There are no doubt ways to mitigate it (font choice? highlighting? font size?), and that might make it worthwhile for some people in some contexts. But visual clarity is definitely important. Even just knowing that more than the usual set of chars (e.g. ASCII) might be involved forces readers to look more carefully. If they know that only ASCII is involved then they are probably already (e.g. unconsciously) paying attention to possible confusions such as `1' and `l'. For the same reason, adding more chars as possibilities also means that users can need to even more carefully choose a font, finding one that distinguishes such things well. Fonts that people have commonly been using for programming typically distinguish the possible ASCII confusions pretty well. > > How much costly was that =CE=B1 to type than alpha?? One backslash!! > > > > Add to that the fact that programs are read > > - 10 times more than written during development > > - 100 times more during maintenance >=20 > Precisely, my experience is that Unicode makes things much harder to > read, and not ony because the problem mentioned above. What other problems would you point out in this regard?