Theme support

[SzG]

Marcel Pol wrote:
> Hello,
>
> There is an idea that's been on my mind for some time that I'd like to
> share. I'd like to discuss it on the list, and if there's some
> consensus about it make it into a ticket.
> For the record, I'm not a programmer, so the real work needs to be done
> by someone else.
>
>
> Problem:
> - The default blue theme of mc is nice, but it's also a bit dated
>   looking. It should be easy to change to a different theme, that is
>   more modern. We should provide some of those in the distribution of
>   mc.
> - Also the changing of theme is quite hard now. When you have set "Save
>   settings on exit", and want to change your theme, you have to quit
>   all instances of mc, then edit the ini file, with a digged up theme
>   from somewhere, and restart mc, and hope the theme works out ok. It
>   should be easy to change from within mc.
>
>
> Implementation:
> We could have an item in "Options" called "Themes", which gives a
> submenu. This submenu gives a list of themefiles, located
> in /usr/share/mc/themes/ and ~/.mc/themes/.
> Selecting one of these themes saves the theme config in ~/.mc/theme
> instead of in the ini file.
>
> We could provide a set of default themes, like:
> Default_blue
> Red (for root user, optionally, if wanted)
> Transparent_black_on_white (can someone provide one?)
> Transparent_white_on_black, like:
>
> [Transparent white on black]
> base_color=normal=white,default:input=white,brown:errors=white,brightdefault:gauge=brown,black:selected=black,white:marked=yellow,default:markselect=yellow,white:directory=white,default:executable=brightgreen,default:link=lightgray,default:device=brightmagenta,default:special=brightmagenta,default:core=brightdefault,default:menu=black,white:menuhot=yellow,white:menuhotsel=brightdefault,black:dnormal=black,white:dfocus=white,lightgray:dhotnormal=yellow,white:dhotfocus=brightdefault,lightgray:editnormal=lightgray,black:editmarked=yellow,white
>
>
> Some considerations:
> - The location of theme files could also be based in /usr/share/themes
>   and ~/.themes/ but since these themefiles are only used by mc, I think
>   it would be less clutter and more straightforward to place them in a
>   directory owned by mc.
> - The naming of the themes gives sometimes a really long name, like
>   "Transparent black on white". Maybe it's not a problem, but if it is,
>   then I don't have a solution.
> - There's a possibility of a screwup, like selecting white text on a
>   white background. There should be an easy way to get back to default
>   blue. Just let the user manually delete ~/.mc/theme?
> - It could be an idea to overhaul the markup of the theme-files, and
>   make it a bit more like .desktop files or similar, with entries like:
> Name=Transparent white on black
> Type=Theme file for Midnight Commander
> Hint=Transparent theme. It gives transparent panels, with white text,
> on a black or dark background. Don't use it on a white background.
> Base_color=.... [etc]
>
>
> Thoughts, comments?
>
>
>   
Hello,

I've just tried the almighty Far-Manager 2.0.

Themes? Yes (a few ugly builtin ones).
Editing of the Color settings from Far itself? Yes.
Through an easy-to-use keyboard-navigable GUI? Yes.
Immediate effect of settings? Yes.
Immediate effect on other instances of Far? No. (And, honestly, I don't 
think it's that important)


As of MC, a theme file format would be nice, which could contain the 
rest of the base_color= line, maybe with linebreaks instead of colons 
allowed, to make editing easier.
MC, in turn, could have a simple "Import Color Theme" command, which 
could copy the contents of a theme file into the base_color= line.

Until your email I was not even fully aware of these color-settings, but 
now I have a beautiful semi-transparent MC!

Thank you very much :-)

Gergely