{ is annoying

[Schabaani]

{ symbol is annoying.

[kay54068]

Agreed, the { symbol is quite peculiar. What is the intent behind its design?

[9px]

disagree!
more difference between { } and [ ] lead to more readability!

[Schabaani]

Sure! However, this is annoying! I am sure they can make it better.

[rwmitchell]

What exactly makes it annoying? The first time I heard someone refer to these as something other than curly-braces, they called them buzzard wings. That was 30+ years ago. This symbol still seems to match that.

[yavorski]

It is actually quite cool, I like it.
Thin @ is more annoying imho.

[Schabaani]

@rwmitchell and @yavorski

Compare to other symbols and other fonts, it has sharp edges that make it an angry symbol. Also, it is not smiling anymore :D :} .

[rwmitchell]

it is also much more obvious as to what it is. The one on the second line looks too much like () for me.

[tkircher]

The defining characteristic of a curly bracket is that, in the left curly bracket case, from middle point to top, and from middle point to bottom, the stroke is always moving left to right. It is objectively incorrect for it to curl back. So if you want to exaggerate the features of a curly bracket, do not make it into a different glyph entirely.

[jnfingerle]

[...] defining characteristic [...] objectively [...]

@tkircher, you're obviously referring to some commonly accepted definition of curly brackets, that I'm not aware of, maybe a standard by a standard body? Could you provide us with a link to said definition?

[RGB-es]

The defining characteristic of a curly bracket is that, in the left curly bracket case, from middle point to top, and from middle point to bottom, the stroke is always moving left to right. It is objectively incorrect for it to curl back. So if you want to exaggerate the features of a curly bracket, do not make it into a different glyph entirely.

Beside the fact that there is not such a thing as "objective truth" on type design, and accepting that Intel One Mono goes far beyond any other font on that direction, there are other examples of fonts where curly brackets "curl back" by different amounts: even iconic designs such as the original IBM Courier do that to an extent (small, true, but clearly present, you can see it in the Wikipedia article), but also Fantasque Sans Mono, Luxi Mono, etc. You find it also in proportional fonts such as EBGaramond, ETbb, Gentium (where the middle point even goes a bit downwards for the left bracket and upwards for the right one), Vollkorn, etc.

Again, for Intel One Mono is far more pronounced than for any other font, but it's not new. Just my 2 cents.

[gburke-ppb]

It's designed that way so that people who are visually impaired can more easily see that it is, indeed, a curly bracket, and not something else, based on feedback from visually impaired people.

It should stay as it is, as the font is designed for them.

[rwmitchell]

if it was possible to have only one font that made everyone happy, we'd have only one font. we don't, we have lots of fonts to choose from.

having said that, it does appear to be missing some symbols I normally have in my vim airline status :-)

[jeffalder]

if it was possible to have only one font that made everyone happy, we'd have only one font. we don't, we have lots of fonts to choose from.

This. If you don't like the curly braces, then don't use this font.

https://www.codingfont.com/ can run an elimination bracket between pairs of fonts until it helps narrow down to one you like. This font is not yet included in its list.

When I ran this, I landed on Hack. I'm testing this font to see if I like it better. (So far, I still like Hack better.)

[alexmyczko]

I landed on https://github.com/blobject/agave

[tkircher]

If you don't like the curly braces, then don't use this font.

The better solution is for everyone to share their opinion, discuss it, and if necessary, fork the font to modify it as desired. More readable fonts benefit everyone.

As far as the typography of curly brackets, here's a decent article:

https://macrotypography.blogspot.com/2015/11/curly-braces.html

Considering how many people find those two glyphs alone obnoxious, and love the rest of the font, it should at least be a matter of consideration. It's ironic though, to argue on one hand that typography is purely subjective, while also arguing on the other hand that empirically, some people find other fonts more difficult to read.