Changed: prefer Cascadia Code font over Consolas for default if installed (ligatures)

[RaiKoHoff]

• fix: another bug retrieving Font SIze for Common Default vs. Lexer Specific

ref. issue #3344

[hpwamr]

Hello @RaiKoHoff ,
Do you recommend that we install this Cascadia Code font as a replacement for Consolas ?

Hereunder some more infomation about Cascadia Code font:

Microsoft has just announced that its Visual Studio 2022 preview is up for developer testing ahead of its planned summer release this year with:

• Cascadia Code, a new fixed-width font for better readability and ligature support.
  (If you like, you can try Cascadia Code today! https://aka.ms/CascadiaCode)
• https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/cascadia-code/
• https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases

[craigo-]

Hello @RaiKoHoff ,
Do you recommend that we install this Cascadia Code font as a replacement for Consolas ?

From this user's perspective, I'd say no... I prefer to manage my own fonts, and while ligatures are pretty cool, I find several other visual features of the font fairly unappealing. I'll spend my time evaluating other ligature-enabled fonts - or stick with my current monospaced font of choice (Cousine).

It would also be another repo for you to maintain; I see the font has had a fair few updates. Leave that work to the user (or updates to Windows Terminal / Visual Studio, where it's probably already installed and maintained).

If it were a case of Notepad3 absolutely needing this font to work well, then I'd have a different answer. But I see it more as a nice-to-have.

[RaiKoHoff]

@hpwamr : No, i don't recommend installation of Cascadia Code - this is a user's choice!.
I just changed the font priority selection list, if font is defined as font:Default, which is the initial Common Default.
Which means, if the user has not set another font (e.g. "Cousine"), Notepad3 now tries to replace font:Default by Cascadia Code, if installed, else Consolas (if not installed).
If the user has installed Cascadia Code, he has reasons for that, so it is a good choice for replacing font:Default by this.

This is a further little step in "modernizing" NP3, consistent with using DirectWrite technology by default now, which allows to render ligatures, which are supported by Cascadia Code.
Only needs a documentation in "Changes.txt" on release notes.

Ed.: There might be other Fonts to add to this priority search list (Fira Code, Cousine, Source Code Pro, ...) which opens the question of "order of priority to search", so I decided to use Microsoft-Fonts here.
(Current priority search list: { "Cascadia Code", "Consolas", "Lucida Console", "Courier New" }
first existing font in this list is used for font:Default definition)

[hpwamr]

If it were a case of Notepad3 absolutely needing this font to work well, then I'd have a different answer. But I see it more as a nice-to-have.

Hello @RaiKoHoff ,
Is it a wise idea to force in Notepad3 the "Cascadia Code" font if it is installed in the OS ? 🤔

[RaiKoHoff]

Yes, see comment above.

[hpwamr]

OK, I just see your above comment. 👍 😉