[gentoo-user] Re: emerge colors and light background

[Martin Vaeth]

James Cloos <cloos@×××××××.com> wrote:
> For eix, I have this in a file in /etc/eixrc/:
>
> BG0=none
> BG1=none
> BG2=none
> BG3=none

If you only use colorscheme 3 you need only BG3=none

> COLORSCHEME0=3
> COLORSCHEME1=3

The former (...0=3) should have no effect at all if your TERM
is recognized by eix as 256-color capable.
The latter (...1=3) should have no effect if you really have

> COLORFGBG='0;15'

in your environment: Then automatically the scheme
for white background should be chosen (from the
default value COLORSCHEME1="1 3").

> That is not as good as eix did before the current 256-color schemes were
> added

Really? With ...=0 (instead of ...=3) you get the "old" colors.
Is this really better readable even on white bg?
An attempt to "adapt" this for white bg is ...=2 (instead of ...=3):
That uses from the 8/16 system colors only those which are presumably
readable on white bg.

BTW, if somebody wants to invest time to generate a better color scheme
for 256 colors and white background for eix, I invite you to submit patches.
The requirements for acceptence of a new/alternative 256 color scheme are

1. none of the 8/16 system colors are used (because their default
values depend on the terminal and its customization and are thus
not "fixed")

2. of course readability on white background

3. differently marked things must look different _optically_ on
white background.

4. (technical detail: Use %{BG3} for the background).

2 and 3 together reduce the "apparently available" 240 colors
to a surprisingly small number. Try "eix --256d" to get an idea,
noting that not only some colors printed close to each other are
optically almost undistinguishable (the cube has 3 dimensions...)

If somebody wants to invest the time and needs just technical help,
drop me a pm or - perhaps better so that other possible contributors
can read, too - open a bug for eix on github.