Re: default colors (dark background)

Re: default colors (dark background)

[Sten Drescher]

elf@mailhost.ee.ryerson.ca (Luis Fernandes) said:

LF> For those who have "light dark" backgrounds, like grey75, the
LF> default colours (dark blue & forest green) are very readable, but
LF> for those who prefer shades of "really dark" (like me; I use
LF> dodgerblue4), "dark blue" is unreadable, as is "forest green".

LF> I end up modifying both the aforementioned entries in gnus-cus.el,
LF> every time I install a new version of gnus.

LF> However, any choice that looks good on "really dark" looks too
LF> bright on "light dark"; trust me, I inadvertently (!) volunteered to
LF> design a default colour scheme and have been debating this problem
LF> for a while now.

LF> I can't see an easy solution to this without specifying an
LF> additional shade of background: 'really-dark, in addition to 'light
LF> and 'dark.

	Well, using the [Help][Customize...] menu item to set the faces
works, sorta.  Even this is bad, because I change colors on the fly.  In
my .emacs, I have:

(if (eq window-system 'x)
  (progn 
    (defun white () (interactive)
      (set-mouse-color "green2")
      (set-cursor-color "red")
      (set-foreground-color "black")
      (set-background-color "antiquewhite")
      (set-face-background 'region "cyan3" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'region "black" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'modeline "yellow" (selected-frame) )
      (set-face-background 'modeline "black" (selected-frame) )
    )

    (defun blue () (interactive) 
      (set-mouse-color "cyan3")
      (set-cursor-color "cyan3")
      (set-foreground-color "cyan3")
      (set-background-color "darkslateblue")
      (set-face-background 'region "LightGoldenrod4" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'region "cyan3" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'modeline "darkslateblue" (selected-frame) )
      (set-face-background 'modeline "cyan3" (selected-frame) )
    )

    (defun green () (interactive)
      (set-mouse-color "green")
      (set-cursor-color "cyan3")
      (set-foreground-color "yellow")
      (set-background-color "dark green")
      (set-face-background 'region "grey" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'region "black" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'modeline "white" (selected-frame) )
      (set-face-background 'modeline "black" (selected-frame) )
    )

    (defun black () (interactive)
      (set-mouse-color "green")
      (set-cursor-color "firebrick3")
      (set-foreground-color "sky blue")
      (set-background-color "black")
      (set-face-background 'region "grey" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'region "black" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'modeline "white" (selected-frame) )
      (set-face-background 'modeline "black" (selected-frame) )
    )

    (defun red () (interactive)
      (set-mouse-color "black")
      (set-cursor-color "black")
      (set-foreground-color "red")
      (set-background-color "grey80")
      (set-face-background 'region "grey" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'region "black" (selected-frame))
      (set-face-foreground 'modeline "white" (selected-frame) )
      (set-face-background 'modeline "black" (selected-frame) )
    )

    (black)
    (set-default-font "*-courier-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-m*")

    (menu-bar-mode 1)			; turn it back on 
    (defvar color-menu (make-sparse-keymap "Colors"))
    (define-key global-map [menu-bar Color] (cons "Color" color-menu))
    (define-key color-menu [white] '("White" . white))
    (define-key color-menu [blue]  '("Blue"  . blue))
    (define-key color-menu [green] '("Green" . green))
    (define-key color-menu [black] '("Black" . black))
    (define-key color-menu [red]   '("Red"   . red))
))

	This lets me change colors to suit my mood.  What can I put in
the defuns to change gnus colors appropriately?  (And, in a non-gnus
emacs question, how can I set one of the color schemes and the font as
the default for all frames, not just the first one?)

	Sten

P.S.  Sorry if there were mail bounces on the list from me today.  Our
mail gateway screwed up the aliases. );
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Re: default colors (dark background)

[Luis Fernandes]

Hmmm...that's some interesting code that allows for different colour
schemes akin to the CDE colour-tool (I've only seen this on HP's
HP/UX10.0, BTW; we don't have Solaris 2.5 yet).

I think the pre-defined colour-schme idea is an even nicer solution
to creating a 'really-dark attribute.

If the user is given a choice of several colour schemes then there's
a better chance of him finding a suitable one where only a few
colours are "off" and which could then be easily modified.

Per, how easy would it be to incorporate some sort of colour-scheme
functionality in the Customize dialog, where the user could pick from
a set of pre-defined colour schemes (which I think I just volunteered
to design) and then modify one or two colors and then save the
results as defaults?

Re: default colors (dark background)

[Per Abrahamsen]

>>>>> "LF" == Luis Fernandes <elf@mailhost.ee.ryerson.ca> writes:

LF> Per, how easy would it be to incorporate some sort of colour-scheme
LF> functionality in the Customize dialog, where the user could pick from
LF> a set of pre-defined colour schemes (which I think I just volunteered
LF> to design) and then modify one or two colors and then save the
LF> results as defaults?

As hard as supporting meta-variables.  It is something that really
should be done, but there is a lot of things that should be done even
more urgently. 

Re: default colors (dark background)

[Scott Blachowicz]

Sten Drescher <dreschs@mpd.tandem.com> wrote:

> 	This lets me change colors to suit my mood.  What can I put in
> the defuns to change gnus colors appropriately?  (And, in a non-gnus
> emacs question, how can I set one of the color schemes and the font as
> the default for all frames, not just the first one?)

I'm not sure if this is complete, up-to-date or "proper" (I believe it is
definitely specific to GNU Emacs 19, not XEmacs), but I've got this
function that I put together a while ago:

    (defun sab:modify-all-frames (alist)
      ;; Modify existing frames
      (mapcar (lambda (f)
                (modify-frame-parameters f alist))
              (frame-list))

      ;; Set defaults for new frames
      (mapcar (lambda (f)
                (let ((old (assoc (car f) default-frame-alist)))
                  (setq default-frame-alist
                        (append
                         (if old
                             (delete old default-frame-alist)
                           default-frame-alist)
                         (list f)))
                  )
                )
              alist
              )
      )

and I call it like this:

          (sab:modify-all-frames
           '((foreground-color . "DarkSlateBlue")
             (background-color . "grey90")
             )
           )

Scott Blachowicz    Ph: 206/283-8802x240    StatSci, a div of MathSoft, Inc.
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