Re: Ligature support

[tomas]

On Fri, Nov 05, 2021 at 05:45:09PM +0100, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > For example, the mode line can show stuff like "=-", and the font
> > could have a ligature for that -- do we really want that ligature on
> > the mode line?
> 
> That's a good point.  On the other hand, perhaps we want to use a
> different font on the mode line when using one of these special fonts.
> 
> > Or the font could have a ligature for "ffi" -- do we want a variable
> > named "efficient" be displayed with that ligature?  I'd be surprised.
> 
> Possibly, but probably not.  But I don't think people will choose to use
> fonts for programming that have fonts like that.  (Are there even any
> monospace fonts that have such ligatures?)  But when rendering document
> using a variable-pitch font, then yes.

Thing is you sometimes want the ligature and sometimes you don't.
In languages which tend to slap words together, making a ligature
across the word junction (morpheme boundary) actually hinders
legibility. English has those too: the 'fl' in chiefly, the 'ff'
in shelfful, you get the idea.

I wonder whether the HarfBuzz engine takes that into consideration;
it would have to know (or guess?) the language it is treating.

Cheers
 - t

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