Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#81

Post by cowpewter » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 2:55 PM UTC

djbender wrote: post #75

I was all about white on black until I realized that I keep being visually fatigued by flipping back and forth into a webpage that was black on white. For me, unless my entire workflow can be white on black, I stick with black on white. Maybe it's just me but I also find black on white more legible at low brightness display settings as well.

Same with me, though I prefer a very soft grey to full on white. Too many webpages have white backgrounds, and it's painful to flip from a dark editor to go look something up on a glaring white Google.

I use a slightly customized iPlastic in TextMate.

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#82

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:00 PM UTC

phzbOx wrote: post #45

I'm surprised nobody talked about Wombat. It's the theme I use everywhere I can. It's on a dark gray background. Here is a screenshot: http://dengmao.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/vim-color-scheme-wom...

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#83

Post by joshwa » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:01 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #33

I wouldn't say white on black, more like grey and some other muted colors on black. I remember making the switch from black on white. I was working a contract job with ungodly hours and my eyes were pretty much always red and irritated. I started to notice certain colors on the screen were particularly irritating so I started to fiddle with the color scheme and eventually ended up with the light on black scheme. It w…

Agreed-- not-quite-white on not-quite-black is much less fatiguing for me than pure white on pure black. The slightly lower contrast is quite pleasing, but still allows for good contrast with syntax highlighting. (I use a variation on the Twilight scheme in Textmate, Eclipse, and Xcode)

http://i.imgur.com/uxpcm.png

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#84

Post by irahul » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:06 PM UTC

White on black - ir_black

    http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/8

Tried a number of themes - this works best for me.

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#85

Post by steele » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:08 PM UTC

syntax highlighting against black is nearly impossible when achieving and exceeding the ballmer peak; too blurry for me.

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#86

Post by bdz » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:10 PM UTC

white on blue

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#87

Post by _corbett » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:16 PM UTC

black on white, +flux.app

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#88

Post by dfan » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:23 PM UTC

My general observation has been that people who like to work in the (relative) dark like dark color schemes and people who like to have lights on like light color schemes.

I personally enjoy a black-on-white color scheme, but if I were in a dark room I'm sure I would find it very fatiguing on my eyes.

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#89

Post by nvk » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

I like preserving my sight as much as possible, so dark (not black) with light (not white) pastel colors.

Re: Ask HN: Your code editor, black on white or white on black?

#90

Post by kbutler » Tue, Dec 20, 2011, 3:31 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #69

After 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.

But the pink afterimage was always annoying - I much preferred the amber monochrome monitors that came available.

I still use a "wheat" on black for night-time reading on my iphone...