I have a desideratum, which is to be able to enter left-aligned (aka
'left-to-right' or 'LTR') pre-formatted text into a card. The pre-formatting
should apply regardless of the default alignment of text in that card type. My
use-case is that I wish to use Mnemosyne to study code snippets, but satisfying
my desideratum would potentially also be useful for people studying certain
kinds of poetry or other texts in which the alignment of the columns of
characters is important. In the case of code snippets, preserving indentation
and displaying the snippet in a monospaced typeface is important for two
reasons:
1. it enhances comprehensibility of code snippets during revision, and
2. it more closely matches the appearance of code in real computer programs as
viewed in text editors or Integrated Development Environments ('IDEs'),
therefore improving the applicability of the revision performed in Mnemosyne.
Unfortunately, I have not yet found a way to achieve this desideratum in
Mnemosyne 2.3.6.
Here is my progress so far. Suppose I want to have the following text on the
front of a card:
def some_fun():
foo = 1
bar = 2
bork = 3
As my first attempt, I simply copy and paste the above snippet into the 'Front'
field of a new 'Front and back' card. By default, however, the resulting card
front displays each line individually centred, so the desideratum is not
satisfied by this attempt.
If I go to Settings > Configure Mnemosyne > Card appearance , then I can set
cards of this type to display their contents left-aligned or right-aligned, but
neither option preserves the text as entered. For example, left-alignment
strips leading whitespace, causing the indentation to be lost. So, the
desideratum is not satisfied by this attempt.
So, I tried surrounding the example above with '<code>' and '</code>' tags.
Unfortunately, Mnemosyne seems to completely ignore these. So, the desideratum
is not satisfied by this attempt.
So, I tried surrounding the example above with '<pre>' and '</pre>' tags
instead. If the card type is set to use right or centred alignment (see above),
then unfortunately, these tags are effectively ignored by Mnemosyne. So, the
desideratum is not satisfied by this attempt.
If the card type is set to use left-alignment, and the code snippet is put into
a 'pre' element (see above), then the leading whitespace is preserved. Yay! But
now we encounter another problem: the typeface is not monospaced, so the
alignment in the snippet is not preserved. (Shouldn't any HTML rendering engine
render 'pre' element contents using a monospaced typeface by default?) So, the
desideratum is not satisfied by this attempt.
If the card type is set to use left-alignment, and the code snippet is put into
a 'pre' element, and the card type is set to use a monospaced typeface (via
Settings > Configure Mnemosyne > Card appearance > Select font , then any Front
or Back text outside of a 'pre' element becomes monospaced, but unfortunately
the contents of the 'pre' element remains in a proportional (i.e.
non-monospace) typeface! So, the desideratum is not satisfied by this attempt.
Next, I attempted several ways of making the contents of the 'pre' element
monospaced. Sadly, none of them worked. Here is a list of those attempts, which
were performed singly (i.e. not combined):
- At the top of the card's 'Front' field, add the line, '<style>pre {
font-family: monospace }</style>'.
- Add a 'style' attribute to the opening 'pre' tag: '<pre style="font-family:
monospace">'.
- Wrap the 'pre' element in a 'font' element: '<font
face="freemono"><pre>...</pre></font>'.
- Wrap the 'pre' element contents in a 'font' element: '<pre><font
face="freemono">...</font></pre>'.
Having made so many attempts without success, I fear that either I have missed
something terribly obvious, or else Mnemosyne does not currently support my
desideratum. I would appreciate advice about which of these two possibilities
is in fact the case.
Many thanks!
Sam
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