Ligatures in programming fonts: hell no (2019)
Especially when programming, but also at most other times, I want a 1 to 1, unambiguous correspondence between the symbol I entered and the display on the screen.<p>Making my &quot;:)&quot; into an emoji is <i>wrong</i>. &quot;Do what I meant&quot; input magic bullshit is <i>always</i> going to be wrong about &quot;what you meant&quot; sometimes, and occludes the possibility of &quot;<i>I</i> didn&#x27;t know what I meant until I saw it&quot; with its helpful corrections.<p>Have had this argument with fans of &quot;autocomplete&quot; systems, too. An analogy I like is a powered exoskeleton: if you had one you could run faster and jump higher and all these good things: but then when it breaks or you&#x27;re not wearing it you&#x27;ve less native ability and no familiarity with the unassisted world, which makes you dependent on the tools.