Really interested in this for cargo/rustc. We run into issues where we need one or two more colors but all that is left after going for the basic semantic colors is magenta (odd choice), and black and white (not safe without inspecting the theme).
Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
71–80 of 212 posts
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know 16 colours is limiting, but one of my biggest pet peeves is CLI / TUI developers creating their own custom themes using colours outside of that because odds are, they’re going to generate a colour scheme that is harder to read for a lot of people with visual impairments, people who prefer a white or coloured background for eye comfort, people are dyslexic and find non-black backgrounds easier to read, and othe…
I agree. I always customize the blue color on my terminal because dark blue on black is completely unreadable to me (and I'm not even color blind!). For some reason, every single terminal emulator defaults to a blue that's unreadable on a black background (I think typically #00f). If a tool overrides my color settings, it too usually picks a dark blue that's unreadable on my black background.
Most of them are emulating the EGA/VGA palette which was a regression from the CGA terminal colors.
https://int10h.org/blog/2022/06/ibm-5153-color-true-cga-pale...
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
You need support from third party software such as Xorg or Weston. On Windows, it just works.
Do you think xorg and weston dont support more than 16 colors? You just run a different terminal emulator.
So I need a terminal emulator to see colours? On Windows I just open a window and put colours in it.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#74Just use direct color mode (24bit, "true color")[1] and there will be no need for a palette.
> Fewer terminals support truecolor.
From what I know all modern terminal emulators in all operating systems support it now.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#75Color schemes voluntarily added by the user to an app like vim, great.
All the more reason for developers to keep the app itself responsive to the user’s environment by default.
Don’t bake in elaborate visual choices. It’s a usability thing first and a style thing somewhere much farther down the list.
Keep it simple from the factory. Don’t get in the way of customization. Let the user’s environment do the work of adapting it to the user.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#76This new palette should be behind a new control code, that should sort out the issue of opting in.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#77The good thing with the 256c palette is that colors in the 16-255 range are fixed, which gives us a very high level of confidence that 146 will be a muted violet and so on. This is very useful for colorscheme developers because it allows us to provide a pretty good and consistent experience across the widest range of terminal emulators. If the 256c palette is generated from a -- potentially wild -- 16c palette then t…
> and consistent experience across the widest range of terminal emulators.
Instead of aiming to provide a "consistent experience", you should instead prioritize providing consistent functionality, while avoiding impeding users' control over their own particular experience.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#78The good thing with the 256c palette is that colors in the 16-255 range are fixed, which gives us a very high level of confidence that 146 will be a muted violet and so on. This is very useful for colorscheme developers because it allows us to provide a pretty good and consistent experience across the widest range of terminal emulators. If the 256c palette is generated from a -- potentially wild -- 16c palette then t…
I think it's an interesting idea, but should be set as an option and default to off, for the reason you describe.
If the user sets a sensible 16 color palette though, many old utils could look great out of the box. I'm enticed by the idea.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#79The good thing with the 256c palette is that colors in the 16-255 range are fixed, which gives us a very high level of confidence that 146 will be a muted violet and so on. This is very useful for colorscheme developers because it allows us to provide a pretty good and consistent experience across the widest range of terminal emulators. If the 256c palette is generated from a -- potentially wild -- 16c palette then t…
> provide a [...] consistent experience Please just don't. This is not the web. Color usage in the terminal should be largely semantic, not stylistic. Speaking for the group of people I know and work with, we don't want a "consistent experience" and hate TUIs that try to manhandle the color palette. Use color sparingly and with intention. Respect that different people have different settings.
Yes, and giving developers control over colors, text size, typeface and so on has also been a usability and accessibility disaster on the web, too! The user should have this control.
Re: Terminals should generate the 256-color palette
#80Just use direct color mode (24bit, "true color")[1] and there will be no need for a palette. > Fewer terminals support truecolor. From what I know all modern terminal emulators in all operating systems support it now. [1] https://github.com/termstandard/colors
they explicitly had an opinion about true color, right in the article we’re discussing