Package: xterm
Version: 344-1
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
While using proportional fonts, the Greek letter pi (π) is treated as
a box-drawing character or, more likely, as missing from the
proportional font altogether. This happens _only at certain point
sizes_ AND/OR _only with specific fonts_.
Scenario 1: Greek pi works, but box-drawing does not
----------------------------------------------------
With these settings:
xterm.vt100.faceName: DejaVu Sans Mono
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 10
XTerm.vt100.forceBoxChars: false
The greek letter pi is displayed correctly, but the second vertical line
(drawn with U+2502) is almost the same as the first one (drawn with
U+007C).
Image:
https://protesilaos.com/assets/images/attachments/xterm_grpi_boxchars_scenario1.png
Scenario 2: Greek pi does not work, but box-drawing does
--------------------------------------------------------
With these settings:
xterm.vt100.faceName: DejaVu Sans Mono
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 10
XTerm.vt100.forceBoxChars: true
The Greek letter pi is drawn using a fixed-size (bitmap) font. The
second vertical line is properly displayed using box-drawing characters.
Image:
https://protesilaos.com/assets/images/attachments/xterm_grpi_boxchars_scenario2.png
Scenario 3: faceSize: 9.5 forceBoxChars: false works for both
-------------------------------------------------------------
With these settings:
xterm.vt100.faceName: DejaVu Sans Mono
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 9.5
XTerm.vt100.forceBoxChars: false
Everything appears to work as intended.
Image:
https://protesilaos.com/assets/images/attachments/xterm_grpi_boxchars_scenario3.png
Scenario 4: Fira Code works using settings from scenarios 1 and 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------
With these:
xterm.vt100.faceName: Fira Code
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 10
XTerm.vt100.forceBoxChars: false
Or this changed:
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 9.5
Everything seems to work as intended.
Image:
https://protesilaos.com/assets/images/attachments/xterm_grpi_boxchars_scenario4.png
Scenario 5: forceBoxChars always breaks Greek letter pi (π)
-----------------------------------------------------------
With these settings:
xterm.vt100.faceName: Fira Code
xterm.vt100.faceSize: 10
XTerm.vt100.forceBoxChars: true
Regardless of typeface, enabling forceBoxChars will always draw the
letter pi in a bitmap font.
Image:
https://protesilaos.com/assets/images/attachments/xterm_grpi_boxchars_scenario5.png
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.0
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages xterm depends on:
ii libc6 2.28-10
ii libfontconfig1 2.13.1-2
ii libfreetype6 2.9.1-3
ii libice6 2:1.0.9-2
ii libtinfo6 6.1+20181013-2
ii libutempter0 1.1.6-3
ii libx11-6 2:1.6.7-1
ii libxaw7 2:1.0.13-1+b2
ii libxft2 2.3.2-2
ii libxinerama1 2:1.1.4-2
ii libxmu6 2:1.1.2-2+b3
ii libxpm4 1:3.5.12-1
ii libxt6 1:1.1.5-1+b3
ii xbitmaps 1.1.1-2
Versions of packages xterm recommends:
ii x11-utils 7.7+4
Versions of packages xterm suggests:
pn xfonts-cyrillic <none>
-- no debconf information
