Re: [PATCH 0/6] Add targets for alternative fonts

["Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 11:45:03PM +0900, Akira Yokosawa wrote:
> On 2016/10/18 23:45:48 -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 06:57:56AM +0900, Akira Yokosawa wrote:
> >> >From ec360d66cdab86bbe98d544aca52aaec1e03518e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> >> From: Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com>
> >> Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2016 20:11:35 +0900
> >> Subject: [PATCH 0/6] Add targets for alternative fonts
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> As I implied in the cover-letter of previous patch set, I attempted to
> >> add make targets for alternative monospaced fonts.
> >>
> >> Courier font is said to be a standard monospeced typewriter font.
> >> It is good as long as you don't mix it with other fonts, but when mixed
> >> used in Times Roman text, it looks too wide and too thin.
> >>
> >> Typewriter fonts available in LaTeX are listed at the LaTeX Font
> >> Catalogue site: http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/typewriterfonts.html
> >> (including both monospaced and proportional fonts).
> >>
> >> I have no idea how much people prefer courier font, so I took two
> >> approaches.
> >>
> >> One was to try courier font variations.
> >> The other was to try "txtt" based font packages. "txtt" is a font
> >> designed to look better when mixed used with Times fonts.
> >>
> >> But I couldn't figure out which to propose because of pros and cons
> >> of candidate fonts. So I just added make targets for people to try.
> >>
> >> Detailed explanation of these new targets and font packages can be
> >> found in the commit message of the 3rd patch ("Makefile: Add targets
> >> for alternative monospace fonts").
> >>
> >> Summary of pros and cons of each target is as follows.
> >>
> >>   mss: (courier scaled)
> >>     pros: o can build on old TeX installation
> >>     cons: o too thin
> >>           o scaling by .94 affects apparent vertical position (looks
> >>             slightly lower than Times Roman text)
> >>   msr: (nimbusmono regular)
> >>     pros: o thick enough
> >>     cons: o requires recent TeX installation
> >>           o scaling by .94 affects apparent vertical position (looks
> >>             slightly lower than Times Roman text)
> >>   msn: (nimbusmononarrow)
> >>     pros: o can hold up to 64 characters in a line of code snippet
> >>     cons: o requires recent TeX installation
> >>           o single letter variable names denoted by \co{} may be hard
> >> 	    to recognize
> >>   mstx: (txtt)
> >>     pros: o can build on old TeX installation
> >>           o looks mostly good when mixed with Times Roman
> >>     cons: o zero character is slashed
> >>           o asterisk character has a higher position
> >>   msnt: (newtxtt)
> >>     pros: o looks mostly good when mixed with Times Roman
> >>     cons: o requires recent TeX installation
> >>           o asterisk character has a higher position
> >>
> >> Shrinking courier based fonts reduces the x-height, and causes
> >> monospaced text to look somewhat lower than Times Roman text.
> >> Actual baseline is not affected but the look is affected.
> >>
> >> My preference is the target "msnt" which uses "newtxtt" font package.
> >> But "txtt" based fonts have higher positions of "*" character.
> >> I anticipate some people to have hesitation to use it.
> >>
> >> There are other obstacles here.  Some of the targets require quite
> >> recent LaTeX installation or manual installation of font packages.
> >>
> >> On Ubuntu Trusty, only the targets "mss" and "mstx" can be built on
> >> TeX Live 2013 available there.
> >>
> >> On Ubuntu Xenial, TeX Live 2015 works just fine for all the targets.
> >>
> >> My recommendation is to use "mss" (courier scaled) option as the default
> >> and permit up to 57 characters in a line of code snippets, and give people
> >> alternative font choices as make targets.
> >>
> >> If "mss" is acceptable as the default, we can modify "perfbook.tex" and
> >> revert ad hoc fontsize tweaks done in the past.
> >>
> >> The latter half of this patch set is an attempt to use sans serif font
> >> (Helvetica) as default font for one-column layout. Sans serif fonts are
> >> said to be easier to read on a lower resolution display. 
> >>
> >> Again, there is an obstacle here. I used a package "mathastext" for math
> >> mode font tweaks, but the version of mathastext on Ubuntu Trusty conflicts
> >> with hyperref package. The version provided on Ubuntu Xenial works fine
> >> with a workaround given in the 5th patch ("Redefine \path command for
> >> sans serif font").
> >>
> >> Please take time to see which one meets your preference and let me
> >> know what you feel.
> >>
> >>                                                 Thanks, Akira
> >>
> >> Akira Yokosawa (6):
> >>   Separate font package declarations
> >>   Adjust scale of sans serif font
> >>   Makefile: Add targets for alternative monospace fonts
> >>   Makefile: Add target '1csf' (one-column sans serif)
> >>   Redefine \path command for sans serif font
> >>   Makefile: Add notice of mathastext version for 1csf
> >>
> >>  Makefile     | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> >>  perfbook.tex | 38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
> >>  2 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
> > 
> > Applied and pushed, thank you!
> > 
> > Getting on a plane soon, but will check tables containing code later, as
> > these have been the places where font size has been the most troublesome.
> > 
> > Next time, could you please resend the whole series as v2?  Just makes it
> > a bit easier to process.  ;-)
> 
> Yes. I noticed the error just before leaving home. I half expected to get
> request for v2. Doing manual patch submission in the morning was a bad idea...

I do know that feeling...  ;-)

							Thanx, Paul