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.Making my ":)" into an emoji is wrong. "Do what I meant" input magic bullshit is always going to be wrong about "what you meant" sometimes, and occludes the possibility of "I didn't know what I meant until I saw it" with its helpful corrections.Have had this argument with fans of "autocomplete" 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're not wearing it you've less native ability and no familiarity with the unassisted world, which makes you dependent on the tools.