Also, I'm curious. I want to see how the code looks like. I want to know what are the downsides of monospace and the benefits of proportional. The one you cited isn't too much of a deal, since it is just a habit you can create using monospace still.
Because I don't know of a way to get HN to format text in a proportional font without losing the line breaks. Believe me, I've tried. :-)
> Also, I'm curious. I want to see how the code looks like.
I am glad you are curious about it!
> I want to know what are the downsides of monospace and the benefits of proportional. The one you cited isn't too much of a deal, since it is just a habit you can create using monospace still.
Indeed, and now that you mention it, I'm not entirely sure which happened first. I may have switched to the second style with indentation instead of column alignment before I started using a proportional font, just because I was tired of the excessive line lengths and always having to fiddle with the spaces.
Regarding the downsides and benefits, will it sound like a cop-out if I say it's just something you have to try for yourself?
Part of my preference for proportional fonts isn't even tied to any rational reasons. I spend much of my day looking at code, and I just find proportional fonts easier to read, more beautiful and pleasant to look at. But beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
Edit: crap, doesn't work
Test unicode non-breaking space.
Test unicode narrow no break space.
Test unicode figure space.
EDIT: So there you have it, if you want a non-breaking space on hackernews, use unicode's figure space or narrow non-breaking space. Apparently they already filter out the normal non-breaking space.