Google Logo Ligature Bug
jefftk.com
jefftk.com
(Which is to say that it doesn’t)
But ligature is indeed still visible on Google search.
Gotta love that the patch isn't fixing the font, but adding a rule for domain names which contains a substring similar to the ligature name...
in fact this could be a novel attack vector. replace fonts on victims devices to hide the true address of a website. the fix then would have to be to not display any ligatures at all in website addresses, which in my opinion would be a smart change.
Fixing the code doesn't help users that downloaded code and don't get the new version either.
Malicious code that can replace a font can replace a lot more too.
“$10,000 for report of high-quality && high-impact security UI issue + $5,000 bonus for unique, novel cool bug -- this was a very neat discovery!”
Same reason to not use ligatures in your IDE, terminal, etc.
Did that trend finally die off?
I love the way my code looks in Berkeley Mono on any modern editor version. Seeing `>=` render similar to `≥` makes me smile. It’s a tiny visual tweak that doesn’t even cause anything to move on the screen, because that font’s ligatures are the same width as the characters they replace. I see no downside to it for me.
But the great part about ligatures is that I can use fonts that support them and enable them in my editors because I think they look pretty. Anyone who doesn’t like their appearance can just not use them. We can both have editors that look nice to ourselves without making the other’s editors look worse. How often can we say that?
I’m not disputing your preference, I was just stating mine. I do prefer “≥” over “>=“, but not in the form of a double-width ligature that is still “>=“ under the hood.
> Will I ever get as fast typing composed characters as just pressing `>=`?
Typing “>=” usually involves pressing three keys. The same can be true with Compose.
That’s not to say that there isn’t some trade-off in some cases. But the frequently used symbols can be prioritized, and it opens up a vastly larger repertoire of characters you can type. I routinely type foreign languages with accents and other non-ASCII letters using Compose, and it has become muscle memory.
:iabbr >= ≥
I've been pushing the limits of emoji/Unicode recognition where I try to input it in an app or while communicating with others, and see what happens.
It's especially fun to use Emoji in the "favorite lists" for rideshare apps. In particular, each of my Favorite Waymo Destinations is accompanied by 3-5 Emoji which identify the unique spot or its category.
The really amusing part is that the Waymo car itself verbally reads off the destination when it gets underway. So the Emojis are translated into English and rattled off uncritically, but accurately, including incidentals like which skin-tones were chosen. It makes me giggle; I haven't found any unpronounceable glyphs yet!
I've also seen nice use of ligature for markdown formatting.
the idea that ligatures shouldn't be used with monospace fonts would also break monospace in multiple languages as some languages require ligatures to display single characters correctly.