Proportional width font terminal
This project is a terminal that uses a proportional width font instead of a monospaced font, letting characters like "i" and "w" occupy their natural widths while spending extra computation to keep table output from commands like ls -l and top properly aligned.
What it addresses
Terminals have historically required monospaced fonts because computers were slow and every bit/cycle mattered, forcing characters like "i" and "w" to take up the same amount of horizontal space.
Shared over time
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Proportional width font terminal
This project is a terminal that uses a proportional width font instead of a monospaced font, letting characters like "i" and "w" occupy their natural widths while spending extra computation to keep table output from commands like ls -l and top properly aligned.
Problem: Terminals have historically required monospaced fonts because computers were slow and every bit/cycle mattered, forcing characters like "i" and "w" to take up the same amount of horizontal space.
Posted by @solyin · Original comment ↗
“A proportional width font terminal. "i" and "w" shouldn't take up the same amount of horizontal space. We used to have to do that because computers were slow and we counted cycles and every bits mattered. We live in a land of plenty now though so we can spend cycles doing math so that ls -l/top/etc table output is still aligned but "i" and "w" can take up the appropriate amount of horizontal space.”