Re: vim fonts change with time and with computer

On 16/07/12 04:51, AndyHancock wrote:
> I've got font increment key mappings such as:
>
> map <C-F6> :set guifont=Monospace\ 8<CR>
> map <C-F7> :set guifont=Monospace\ 9<CR>
> map <C-F8> :set guifont=Monospace\ 10<CR>
> map <C-F9> :set guifont=Monospace\ 11<CR>
> map <C-F10> :set guifont=Monospace\ 12<CR>
> map <C-F11> :set guifont=Monospace\ 13<CR>
> map <C-F12> :set guifont=Monospace\ 14<CR>
>
> Over the years, I've found that it can take countless hours to
> choose good fonts, and it's also pretty important when you're
> staring and many source files simultaneously.
>
> Lately, I've encountered puzzling behaviours in how gvim handles
> font selections which could partially explain why font refinement
> takes such a long time when I migrate my settings to a different PC
> or when I find that my past font selections seem oddly unsatisfying,
> for some strange reason.
>
> The first is that when I use the GUI menu to select fonts
> (Edit->Select Font), the list of font names seem to change based on
> factors that I haven't been able to identify yet. That is, I could
> see a font name on the list and later not see it.
>
> The second is that the exact same fonts (such as the ones above)
> look different on different computers. That is, it will be sans
> serif on one system and not another. Like a completely different
> font. I am pretty sure that the font libraries are the same because
> I use the same cygwin x-windows install packages. What might cause
> this?

On Tuesday, July 17, 2012 1:22:40 AM UTC-4, Tony Mechelynck wrote:
> "Edit→Select Font" runs ":set guifont=*". This displays a dialog
> showing
> - all installed fonts, if running in gvim with GTK2 GUI
> - all installed *monospace* fonts, in other GUI flavours
>
> The commands you show above are only valid in gvim with GTK2 GUI. In
> other gvim flavours (such as Windows, or macvim, or Motif) these
> commands are not valid, but (if issued in the vimrc) they will set
> some default font, in my experience usually an ugly one.
>
> In any case, "Monospace" is a generic family; from one computer to
> the next it might be implemented using different (sometimes very
> different) font faces. If you use a specific font name instead, for
> instance
>
> if has('gui_running')
> if has('gui_gtk2') " but not GTK1
> set gfn=Courier\ 10
> elseif has('gui_photon')
> set gfn=Courier:s10
> elseif has('gui_kde') " the obsolete kvim
> set gfn=Courier/10/-1/5/50/0/0/0/1/0
> elseif has('mac') " Mac incl. MacVim
> set gfn=Courier:h10
> elseif has('x11') " OTHER X11 including GTK1
> set gfn=-*-courier-medium-r-normal-*-*-100-*-*-m-*-*
> else " assume DOS / Windows
> set gfn=Courier_New:h10:cDEFAULT
> endif
> endif
>
> the results should be much more uniform, even on different gvim
> flavours and/or different operating systems. (Each gvim flavour
> accepts only one of the six 'guifont' formats shown, and
> console-only Vim accepts of course none of them.)

I tested that has('gui_gtk2') returns true.

I do understand that different installations can yield different fonts, especially if the font name is generic and has no standardized implementation. However, both installations are from Cygwin, and both uses exactly the same packages, including X11 & its fonts. That's why it seems strange that the same font name yields different fonts.

Furthermore, when I use the GUI menu to access the fonts, the list is not the same all the time, even in the same session on the same machine. The list actually changes within the same vim session (and I don't mess around with the fonts during that session). It is most bizzarre.

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