Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use wombat too, its easy on the eyes and a very aesthetically pleasing color scheme.
Customized Wombat, yep.
Customized murphy.. ( contrast junkie! http://i.imgur.com/CEY5P.png )
Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
61–70 of 127 posts
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#62There's a solid usability reason why inverse (light-on-dark) is better for anything with syntax highlighting, like terminals and code. Many colors of the spectra have poor contrast with white when used in an emmisive light context, like your screen. Yellow on white is illegible because it lacks contrast. The range of distinguishable, saturated colors is much larger on a black background, and you can comfortably add a…
I agree about the point you make about contrast and syntax hihglighting, but I disagree with your conclusion.
In my experience dark backgrounds with light text are more tiring on the eyes in long coding sessions. Text gets blurrier quicker than when using a lighter background. I came to this conclusion after years of using dark backgrounds, and having switched to light backgrounds.
Personally, I think the question should not be 'white background or black background', because IMO a light gray or blue background is even better. Borland was on to something with their C++ and Pascal IDE's ;-)
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#63DEDEDE on 404040
I find the perfect colors largely depend on monitor and environment though.
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#64I use the 'moria' colorscheme, with a light background.
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#65At work my stuff is mostly done through puTTY, I set up different profiles for our Dev, QA, and Prod equipment that use green/yellow/red themes respectively.
At home its default Eclipse theme (light) but that's mostly because of pure laziness. This thread has been a good reminder to change that after my reformat this holiday :)
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#66I use Vibrant Ink. I like the clarity of it and port it to any enviro I use.
http://alternateidea.com/blog/articles/2006/1/3/textmate-vib...
Font: inconsolata of course. http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#67Great way to pick an editor theme/style here http://studiostyl.es/ (It's specifically for Visual Studio but I'm sure you can adapt one of the many themes to you editor of choice, or generate a completely new one)
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#68I settled with this:
http://studiostyl.es/schemes/coding-instinct-theme
with some customizations.
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#69After being on IBM systems for so long I have always enjoyed Green on Black. Green is less harsh than white and it allows more colors to be used to high light items than white on black or black on white.
Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?
#70White on black for me. Since a few weeks the twilight256 theme is enabled in all my editors (ST2/Vim/Textmate) and it's great with an non-font-smoothed Courier New in the terminal (Vim) as with a bigger smoothed 'Monaco' in ST2/Textmate.