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The title text references the fact that most code editors use a monospaced font (i.e., one where every character is the same width), as opposed to variable-width fonts, in which some characters like 'I' are narrower than others. This is partly because fixed horizontal alignment is sometimes useful when dealing with certain text strings.
 
The title text references the fact that most code editors use a monospaced font (i.e., one where every character is the same width), as opposed to variable-width fonts, in which some characters like 'I' are narrower than others. This is partly because fixed horizontal alignment is sometimes useful when dealing with certain text strings.
  
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'Variable-width variables', a pun on two meanings of the word 'variable', refers to the fact that the letter X, like all letters, has different widths in different fonts. This would make this fixed alignment almost impossible, thus creating yet another reason why Cueball's language would be highly unpleasant to use. It likely also directly (mis)refers to systems such as {{w|variable-width encoding}} in which the ''data'' linked to in a variable storage is packed into an unfixed number of bits and/or bytes. Such systems often use Huffman-type encoding to progressively differentiate, from the initial elements, how many more elements are needed to fully define the value, but a reserved deliminating value marking the end of a cumulative arbitrary-length array might be considered another form.
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'Variable-width variables', a pun on two meanings of the word 'variable', refers to the fact that the letter X, like all letters, has different widths in different fonts. This would make this fixed alignment almost impossible, thus creating yet another reason why Cueball's language would be highly unpleasant to use. It likely also directly (mis)refers to systems such as {{w|variable-width encoding}} in which the ''data'' linked to in a variable storage is packed into an unfixed number of bits and/or bytes. Such systems often use Huffman-type encoding to progressively differentiate, from the initial elements, how many more elements are needed to fully define the value, but a reserved deliminating value marking the end of a cummulative arbitrary-length array might be considered another form.
  
 
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==Transcript==

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