What kind of IDE theme you prefer while coding.
What kind of IDE theme you prefer while coding.
Note: I added two type of choices for dark and light themes. If you have some visual impairment that prevents you from using any of themes please select MUST USE ... theme.
Note: I added two type of choices for dark and light themes. If you have some visual impairment that prevents you from using any of themes please select MUST USE ... theme.
I would prefer a dark theme but there is stable way of doing that (yes, I know there is https://github.com/RRUZ/delphi-ide-theme-editor but when I last tried it, within the last 18 months, random exceptions occurred every now and again :( )
ReplyDeleteGrowing up with the WordPerfects and Turbos, I was very much into white/yellow on blue, but entering Windows, I was converted to dark gray on off-white. I don't find dark background relaxing, as the contrast usually is too brutal.
ReplyDeleteFor me it was green on black. Mono monitor :)
ReplyDeleteNow, I could not use any dark theme even if my life depended on it.
I voted for #lightthememasterrace (:
ReplyDeletethe "light color" on "dark background" looks good in the movies, but for me is very tiresome, and it messes with my eyes for some reason, so, I avoid it
I prefer to change depending on whether I'm coding during the day (light theme) or night (dark theme.) I chose "I prefer dark theme" because of that.
ReplyDeleteIMO the IDE needs quite a UI overhaul - not in terms of icons, but in terms of modern approaches and layout. A dark theme would be part of this.
I keep the default color theme... too busy coding to spend time decorating my IDE. So, I don't care!
ReplyDeleteThe darkness is calling me... I've got the editor set up to a replica of Visual Studio's dark theme which I enjoy very much.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a dark theme, there's much less total light that I'm staring into all day long. I find I can code for much longer without a break with a dark theme, on really only switched to dark a few years ago but could not go back to light now.
ReplyDeleteI use the old and ancient "yellow/blue" theme. And lateron with context highlightning. Before... It was monochrome (green on black or yellow on black) ...but this was in the 80's...
ReplyDeleteFor me, pretty much what Vincent Parrett and Nicholas Ring just said...
ReplyDeleteI liked the Delphi IDE coloriser but there were a few things I couldn't seem to set right, so I often had (e.g.) black text or control features on a very dark background. I ditched it when I went from XE8 to Seattle but will keep popping back to keep an eye on it.
Lars Fosdal "I don't find dark background relaxing, as the contrast usually is too brutal." I've seen two types of dark theme (for IDEs, paint programs, etc) - once uses black as the background with white text, and one uses a charcoal background and pale but not white text. (Ie light grey, really.) The first is horrible to look at. The second is really gentle on the eyes. If Emb ever implement a dark theme, I very much hope they do the second.
ReplyDeleteDavid Millington your second described option is very much what I was trying to achieve within the IDE Coloriser - I'd love Emba to make a decent job of implementing this in Delphi. I use Visual Studio 2015 a fair bit too and the dark theme in that is quite well done, I think.
ReplyDeleteDavid Millington Yes, non-maximal contrast is key. Helps if you like light themes too. Before going dark, I usually reduced the white background to a very light grey.
ReplyDeleteI think these dark theme folks live in caves. ;)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of good editor themes out there that get the contrast/balance right. Black background with bright colors is not a great idea.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Embarcadero did a terrible job with theming the IDE, FinalBuilder 8 shows what can be done with the VCL Theme engine, yes it was a lot of work though, with lots of bugs to work around (in XE7, some are fixed now).
Vincent Parrett I don't use FinalBuilder (I probably should, but it's expensive for a solo developer - $400, $600) but when I went to the website just now and looked at the screenshots, I didn't see any obvious theming. (https://www.finalbuilder.com/finalbuilder/screenshots )
ReplyDeleteThere are some controls that I'd guess are Raize tabs, but apart from that the screenshots all look pretty normal standard Windows.
What theming does it have, and are there any screenshots of it I could see?
I'm agreed re Emb's theme not being great, although I prefer it to the unthemed look. I would certainly like to improve it if given the opportunity.
Bill Meyer It's just past midnight here and I've just finished working. Bright screen, lights on... it doesn't help the body's circadian rhythm, apparently. For good sleep, you're supposed to not use electronic screens for an hour or two before bed, and if you do then adjust the brightness and colour temperature of those you do look at. So, cave... yes... :) More just that at night-time, I'd like the ability to turn down the virtual lights, thus a dark theme. It's the equivalent of having a single lamp on, vs all the room lights. I'd be much happier using Delphi with a dark background in the evening.
ReplyDeleteFor reference, this is how I got it set up currently in D10: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsyj6bqgc8kg59h/Screenshot%202016-02-19%2000.21.58.png?dl=0
ReplyDeleteI tried colorizing the whole IDE but it didn't end up very well back in XE3 days and I kinda stuck with this since.
David Millington Yes the screnshots are out of date, really do need to get them updated, thx for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteDavid Millington contact me my email vincent at finalbuilder.com - I'm sure we could do a trade ;)
ReplyDeleteAs a solo developer, I couldn't live without FinalBuilder
ReplyDeleteI couldn't keep my eyes on a dark background longer than 1 minute! And this light green background color makes my eyes comfortable: http://img.it610.com/image/info2/0fc5417356564bdab8956a572dccb559.jpg
ReplyDeleteVincent Parrett, I just noticed a FAQ that needs rephrasing: Does my license key expire?
ReplyDeleteNo, licenses never expire (except for eval licenses), but they will only be valid for builds released before your subscription expires.
Here, you mean FinalBuilder builds, but that may be mis-interpreted as customers' product builds. I had to re-read it a couple of times myself before the penny dropped. To my defense, it is early morning here :P
Andrea Raimondi have a coffee and read it again ;) will see if I can make it more clear
ReplyDeleteI really miss the 'split screen' or 'split editor' function in TC 1.5...
ReplyDeleteIn Delphi I use the default (white background) - I tried the dark one but that does not fit with the overall color of the IDE - just the dark editor annoyed me (yes I tried the IDE colorizer but it had glitches all over the place which made it an even more annoying experience). In VS 15 I am using the dark theme because everything fits nicely.
ReplyDeleteDarkish theme throughout would be good, like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop have. Easier on the eyes...
ReplyDeleteWhile my monitor grew (17-19-22-27 inches), somewhere I changed to dark theme. I tried to use the Visual Studio dark colors. But I'm not sure, the dark theme is the best choice. Most of the applications are light, and when I switch from the dark ide to the web browser, the black/white color change is a big flash :(
ReplyDeleteMaybe I will try a light theme again.
The lack of a factory default dark them on Delphi is very unfortunate. Every time they try to put some love into the appearance of Delphi I feel they only make it worse. Time for some real improvement. Also proper High DPI support.
ReplyDeleteSpent a bit of time a while ago setting up a darkish IDE and editor colourset that works reasonably well, loosely based on Liclipse theme (which is I believe based on Sublime Monokai theme IIRC.) I'll try to extract/upload this somewhere if there's interest. You can see it here: http://snag.gy/BuzcK.jpg (Please no comments about the code -- throwaway app.)
ReplyDeleteRandy Sill Do you have a link to that study, or an article about it? It sounds interesting and I'd like to learn more.
ReplyDeleteRandy Sill No worries, thanks for looking! I have read a bit about the effect of various colours in the spectrum, and eye strain and other effects. I suppose you've heard of f.lux? (https://justgetflux.com) It changes the colour temperature of a computer at night to warmer tones - has a big effect. Unfortunately it's buggy on El Capitan otherwise I'd be using it now.
ReplyDeleteI hate "themes". Visual Code or Brackets or lots of other stuff comes ONLY with themes excluding (out-strong-arming) the possibility to tweak syntax coloring. A useless time-thief for us and a meagre show-off opportunity for the people who like to tinker with that stuff. No offence please.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for voting... some interesting numbers here. I must say that I didn't expect "must use dark" will be about the same as "must use light".
ReplyDelete