Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.8.0
By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-04-28
This entry records the changes since version 0.7.0 (2020-03-30). The
present release contains a little more than a hundred commits, covering
one month of intense work.
All changes are aligned with the primary objective of this project,
which is conformance with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard for colour
contrast. This translates to a minimum contrast ratio of 7:1 between a
given combination of foreground and background colours.
All customisation options mentioned herein are off ('nil') by default.
The project's policy is to offer such features on an "opt-in" basis,
while always respecting the principle of least surprise.
Refer to the README for further information.
Four new customisation options
------------------------------
The options in outline, with their detailed description below:
+ Rainbow headings
+ Section headings
+ 3D modeline
+ Subtle diffs
1. "Rainbow headings" will apply more vivid colours to headings in
'org-mode' and 'outline-mode'. The gradation is similar to that of a
rainbow's colour spectrum.
The default is to use colour values that are closer to the grey
scale.
2. "Section headings" also apply to 'org-mode' and 'outline-mode'. They
will draw an overline over each heading and use a nuanced background
colour that is appropriate for each level. For Org, this option has
some additional effects, where it will render keywords and priority
cookies in a box and add to them a subtle background. This is to
make sure that everything feels consistent (to the extent possible).
The default is to not use overlines, backgrounds, boxes in any of the
relevant faces. This is consistent with the standard austere
colouration of headings: to not deviate too much from a "plain text"
aesthetic.
NOTE: "rainbow headings" and "section headings" can work on their own or
be combined together.
3. "3D modeline" will use a faux unpressed button style for the current
window's modeline (like the standard looks of 'emacs -Q'). The
colours used for the active and inactive modelines are tweaked
accordingly to maximise the effect while retaining the visual
distinction between them.
The default is to draw the modelines in a two-dimensional style, with
the active one having a more noticeable border around it.
4. "Subtle diffs" will use colour-coded text for line-wise differences
without applying any appropriately-coded background value or, where
necessary, by using only a subtle greyscale background. This affects
'diff-mode', 'magit', 'ediff', and 'smerge-mode'. For Magit an extra
set of tweaks is implemented to account for the differentiation
between the focused and unfocused diff hunks.
Due to their unique requirements, word-wise or refined changes are
always drawn with a colour-coded background, though it is less
intense when this option is enabled.
The default is to use a colour-coded background and foreground
combination (e.g. light green text on a dark green backdrop) and to
make appropriate adjustments for refined diffs and modes of
interaction such as Magit's focused/unfocused diff states.
Other major refinements
-----------------------
+ Thoroughly revise the colours of 'ediff' and 'smerge-mode', so that
they are aligned with those of 'diff-mode' and 'magit'. This is in
addition to the "subtle diffs" options mentioned in the previous
section.
+ Review the faces used by Flycheck and Flymake. A wavy/curly underline
is now used in all terminals that support it. The underlined text is
drawn with a more nuanced foreground than before. The previous design
was exaggerating an already clear effect and could make things more
difficult under certain circumstances.
+ All language checkers, including the aforementioned linter front-ends,
now benefit from a new set of colours that are designed specifically
for this particular purpose. Makes the affected faces feel more
different than their context.
+ Use dedicated colours for escape sequences, regular expression
constructs, and quoted characters. The goal is to better
differentiate them from their surroundings.
+ Tweak the colours of 'hydra' to improve the distinction between its
various types of behaviour.
+ Reduce the overall luminance of the background colours used in the
fringes by the likes of 'flycheck', 'flymake', 'diff-hl', etc. They
should now not stand out more than they should, while retaining their
intended role.
+ Implement more saturated colours in Elfeed. The previous choices
could make it harder to differentiate the various parts of the
presentation.
+ Make better use of the customisation options for bold and slanted
constructs where that is allowed. If a face is not tied to the
semantics of these styles then it is drawn without them, unless the
user specifically opts for the relevant customisation options.
Added support for packages (A-Z)
--------------------------------
+ ag
+ color-rg
+ ctrlf
+ debbugs
+ eglot
+ forge
+ helpful
+ highlight-symbol
+ ibuffer
+ icomplete
+ iflipb
+ magit-imerge
+ man
+ orderless
+ page-break-lines
+ parrot
+ phi-grep
+ phi-search
+ pomidor
+ rcirc
+ spell-fu
+ switch-window
+ swoop
+ tab-bar-mode
+ tab-line-mode
+ trashed
+ tomatinho
+ tuareg
+ vimish-fold
+ visible-mark
+ vterm
+ wcheck-mode
+ winum
+ woman
Miscellaneous changes and concluding remarks
--------------------------------------------
+ Rewrote large parts of the README to make the customisation options
easier to discover and understand.
+ Updated the screen shots and their description in the relevant Wiki
page: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/wikis/Screenshots