Post B0MH2fODhGJgN7Kcd6 by kfogel@kfogel.org
 (DIR) More posts by kfogel@kfogel.org
 (DIR) Post #B0KWIDOWHrzkcYkKNk by kfogel@kfogel.org
       2025-11-17T07:35:37.170072Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Apparently, the venerable "10x20" bitmap font from X11 has no equivalent under pure Wayland.  I've just tried 19 alternatives, and none of them look nearly as good to my eye.This is all because I'm trying out compiling Emacs with the --with-pgtk option, to avoid stimulating GNOME mutter bug #4416  when switching back to the workspace that has Emacs on it.  In a "pure GTK" build, Emacs won't fall back on X11 calls for anything -- it uses GTK alone, which in this case is running on Wayland, so bug #4416 stops affecting Emacs.  Which is a win, except that now I can't use the font that has been lovingly glazed onto my retinas over several decades, and my hitherto comforting Emacs suddenly feels like an alien landscape, all jagged rocks and pools of liquid methane lapping at my tired feet.I just want my 10x20 font back.  Is that so much to ask?  We can build machines that not only pass the Turing Test but do so while arguing with you about the meaning and significance of the Turing Test, and yet we can't preserve a classic font across window manager changes?Progress, thou knave, fly thee from my house!  Thy name is sultry betrayal.Now, I've been sticking so far to fonts available by default in Debian + GNOME, so maybe I need to install some more to try.  But what I've seen so far is not encouraging.
       
 (DIR) Post #B0KWIKCiy7idk0HVT6 by kfogel@kfogel.org
       2025-11-17T07:41:44.778956Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Anyone curious about those 19 alternatives can see them in this diff:https://viewvc.red-bean.com/kfogel/trunk/.emacs?pathrev=6889&r1=6889&r2=6888#content
       
 (DIR) Post #B0MH2eCU7PKqgQpjhQ by soaproot@sfba.social
       2025-11-18T03:00:48Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @kfogel I'm just searching around the Internet so I doubt anything I find will be better for you, aesthetically, than what you have already tried. But what the heck:* a comment at https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/85805/xelatex-and-10x20-font suggests FreeMono which I didn't see on your lists (at least not by that name)* I'm leaving out all the results for 10 foot by 20 foot storage units and for Wayland, Michigan
       
 (DIR) Post #B0MH2fODhGJgN7Kcd6 by kfogel@kfogel.org
       2025-11-18T03:19:23.229367Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @soaproot Thank you!  I hadn't found that post, somehow.  I did try FreeMono, but there may be various incarnations / size options that make a difference, so I'll give it some more pokes and see how good I can make it look. I wasn't really kidding about the psychological effect of missing the "10x20" font.  For many years -- since before we met, if that gives you an idea! -- it's been one of the visual constants of my day-to-day computing experience.  As soon as I'd see it in my Emacs, I'd feel a certain comfort, a kind of freeing of cares and at the same time a limbering up of technical competences -- the very shapes of the characters on the screen before me told me that I was on home territory.And that's gone now.  All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.