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  • 1.5.0
    b6fb7cda · Update to version 1.5.0 ·
    Modus themes version 1.5.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2021-07-15
    
    This entry outlines the set of changes made to the project since the
    release of version 1.4.0 on 2021-05-25.  There have been over 130
    commits since then.
    
    Every colour-related modification referenced herein is always
    implemented in accordance with the primary accessibility objective of
    the themes for a minimum contrast ratio of 7:1 between background and
    foreground values in their given combination (the WCAG AAA standard).
    Such edits also account for colour-coding that is optimised for the
    needs of users with red-green colour deficiency (deuteranopia or
    variants).
    
    Here is the URL of the manual: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.
    Or read it from Emacs by evaluating this form:
    
        (info "(modus-themes) Top")
    
    The themes are built into Emacs version 28 (current development target),
    and are available on GNU ELPA as well as other archives.
    
    Customisation options
    =====================
    
    Overview of new style of sets of properties
    -------------------------------------------
    
    Several variables now accept a list of symbols as a value.  Those
    represent properties, which can be combined with each other to realise
    the possible styles.  The idea was to simplify their specification in
    order to make them easier to both maintain and extend.  Thanks to Philip
    Kaludercic for introducing this concept in issue 210:
    <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/210>.
    
    The variables are:
    
    + 'modus-themes-prompts' by Philip Kaludercic in merge request 43:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/43>
    
    + 'modus-themes-mode-line' by Philip Kaludercic in merge request 40:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/40>.
    
    + 'modus-themes-lang-checkers' by Philip Kaludercic in merge request 46:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/46>
    
    + 'modus-themes-org-agenda'
    + 'modus-themes-links'
    + 'modus-themes-headings'
    + 'modus-themes-hl-line'
    + 'modus-themes-paren-match'
    + 'modus-themes-region'
    + 'modus-themes-syntax'
    
    Take 'modus-themes-syntax' as an example.  Up until version 1.4.0, it
    would only accept a symbol, signifying a predefined style.  So we had
    the possible value 'faint' and another 'faint-yellow-comments'.  To make
    a third variant of the "faint" aesthetic, such as by combining it with
    the "alt syntax" and/or "green strings", we would need to write new
    presets in the form of 'faint-green-strings', 'faint-alt-syntax',
    'faint-alt-syntax-green-strings', 'faint-green-strings-yellow-comments',
    'faint-alt-syntax-green-strings-yellow-comments'.  That would have been
    inefficient, hence why it was not done.
    
    With the new approach of defining a list of properties, those
    combinations are all possible.  Such as:
    
        (setq modus-themes-syntax '(faint alt-syntax))
    
        (setq modus-themes-syntax '(yellow-comments alt-syntax green-strings))
    
    The order in which the properties are set is not significant.
    
    The doc string of each of the aforementioned variables, or the
    corresponding entry in the manual, provides guidance on how to configure
    things.  The old forms will continue to work for the time being, though
    they are considered deprecated and will stop being supported at a future
    date.
    
    Changes in stylistic variants for variables with sets of properties
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    + The meaning of the "alt syntax" style in 'modus-themes-syntax' has
      been redefined.  In the past, it used to have green-coloured strings
      and doc strings.  Those are now red.  Some other changes have been
      implemented to make the overall looks more consistent.  Users who
      liked the old style can retain it by passing this list of properties:
    
          (alt-syntax green-strings)
    
      New styles for the "faint" aesthetic are possible, here shown as lists
      of properties:
    
          (faint green-strings)
          (faint alt-syntax)
          (faint alt-syntax green-strings)
    
      To each of those the 'yellow-comments' property can be added as well.
    
      Consult the doc string or the manual for the technicalities and code
      samples.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-hl-line' no longer has styles that include only an
      underline.  Those proved to be problematic under certain circumstances
      and were thus removed.
    
      Minor changes have been implemented to make the following combination
      of properties more consistent, by colourising the underline:
    
          (accented intense underline)
    
    + The 'modus-themes-paren-match' now has styles that include an
      'underline' property.  Those extend the old options, such as:
    
          (bold intense underline)
    
    + The 'modus-themes-headings' have an improved set of styles for the "no
      text color" aesthetic.  Those involve the 'monochrome' property, which
      can now yield results that include a background (whereas before it was
      just colourless text for the headings, optionally without a bold
      weight).  As this is an alist, here is an example (always check the
      docs for fully fledged code samples):
    
          (setq modus-themes-headings
                '((1 . (background overline))
                  (2 . (overline background rainbow))
                  (t . (monochrome no-bold background))))
    
      To allow a heading level N to retain its original style, a 't' value
      can be passed.  In the previous version of the themes, it was possible
      to use 'nil' for the same purpose, though that is no longer valid.  In
      those cases, the fallback value of the alist will be used instead,
      such as what is noted above:
    
          (t . (monochrome no-bold background))
    
    + The 'modus-themes-links' provide several new possible styles, due to
      an expanded set of properties that includes, among others, 'bold',
      'italic', and 'background'.  The documentation covers the details.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-lang-checkers' can now attain a style that uses a
      prominently coloured background in addition to what was available
      before as a subtle background and the other variants.
    
    New variables
    -------------
    
    + The 'modus-themes-org-agenda' provides the means to refashion the
      entirety of the Org agenda buffer.  The value it accepts is an alist,
      with some keys expecting a symbol and others a list of properties.
      The minutia are covered in its doc string.  A possible configuration
      can look like this:
    
          (setq modus-themes-org-agenda
                '((header-block . (variable-pitch scale-title))
                  (header-date . (grayscale workaholic bold-today))
                  (scheduled . uniform)
                  (habit . traffic-light)))
    
      'modus-themes-org-agenda' supersedes the old variable that was specific
      to the Org habit graph: 'modus-themes-org-habit'.  There now is a
      'habit' key which accepts the same values as before, plus a new style
      that is optimised for users with red-green colour deficiency:
      'traffic-light-deuteranopia'.  Please consult the doc string of
      'modus-themes-org-agenda' or the relevant entry to the manual.
    
      Thanks to Gustavo Barros for contributing to the creation of this
      variable as well as to all other changes in the relevant faces that
      were done in the interest of usability.  A full report about
      'modus-themes-org-agenda' with screen shots is available here:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2021-06-02-modus-themes-org-agenda/>.
    
      A patch has been sent to upstream Org, with its review pending, which
      improves upon some of the areas we had identified:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2021-06/msg00092.html>.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-inhibit-reload' controls a new behaviour of
      automatically reloading the active theme when an option is set via the
      Custom interfaces or with 'customize-set-variable'.  To opt-in to this
      feature, set the variable to a 'nil' value.
    
      Thanks to Philip Kaludercic for implementing this in merge request 40:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/40>.
    
      In the development phase of this option, a bug was identified
      pertaining to recursion, as reported by Gustavo Barros in issue 213:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/213>.  Changes
      have been made to remove that possibility, as found in merge request
      45: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/45>.
    
      A thread was started on the emacs-devel mailing list to inquire upon
      the technicalities of this option, but it did not gain any traction:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2021-06/msg00828.html>.
    
      As such, we have decided to take our chances by pressing on with this
      feature.  Users who are interested in it are encouraged to give it a
      try and report any possible complications.  Issue 213 remains open.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-italic-constructs' is the new name of the variable
      'modus-themes-slanted-constructs'.  The term "slant" was considered
      too vague or technical and some users could have missed the meaning of
      this option.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-scale-5' is renamed to 'modus-themes-scale-title' to
      better convey its utility.
    
    Changes to the manual
    =====================
    
    + Rewrote or introduced the documentation for all the customisation
      options mentioned above.  Also updated relevant code samples, such as
      in the manual's introduction to the customisation options.  Evaluate
      this form for an annotated code overview:
    
          (info "(modus-themes) Customization Options")
    
    + Rephrased a reference to "gamma ray values" as "gamma values".  Thanks
      to Anders Johansson for the contribution in merge request 42:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/42>.
    
    + Removed the Org macro that would insert the build date in the manual's
      introduction.  This was required to make the file reproducible,
      otherwise it would keep changing each time a new version of Emacs was
      built.  Refer to Emacs bug#48661 by Glenn Morris:
      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=48661>.
    
    + Included note on tweaking the key hints that the Avy package produces.
      This is in response to issue 215 by Rudolf Adamkovič:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/215>.  Thanks to
      Nicolas De Jaeghere for providing the text.
    
    + Wrote a note on how to control the underlines that are generated in
      compilation-mode buffers and related.  It is about configuring the
      variable 'compilation-message-face'.
    
    + Documented how to configure the colours that are applied to the names
      of the days in the 'M-x calendar' interface.  The relevant variable is
      'calendar-weekend-days'.
    
    + Elaborated on a "do it yourself" (DIY) guide on how to benefit from
      the hidden feature of the themes about how they handle the bold weight
      and the italic slant.  In short, we do not hardcode values and thus
      make it easy for users to specify the particularities of what it means
      for a face to have a 'bold' or 'italic' attribute.
    
    Faces and face groups
    =====================
    
    New entries
    -----------
    
    Newly supported packages:
    
    + 'ledger-mode'.  Thanks to Pengji Zhang for the feedback in issue 202:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/202>.
    
    + 'gotest'.  Thanks to Jerry Zhang for the feedback in issue 226:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/226>.
    
    + 'css-mode'
    
    New faces for already supported groups:
    
    + 'shr-h1', 'shr-h2', 'shr-h3', 'shr-h4', 'shr-h5', 'shr-h6' of the
      shr.el library (simple HTML renderer, as experienced in, for example,
      EWW).  Those are available for Emacs28, with a patch by me:
      <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=49433>
    
    + 'apropos-button' as a generic face that fontifies faces in apropos
      buffers.  Available for Emacs28, with a patch by me:
      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=49162>.
    
    + 'selectrum-mouse-highlight'.  This makes the mouse hover effect for
      selectrum look the same as in most other contexts.  Thanks to okamsn
      for the feedback in issue 203:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/203>.
    
    Review of existing entries
    --------------------------
    
    + Added an ':extend' property to 'next-error' face.  This face is used
      for pulse effects.  It is good to have them extend to the edge of the
      window, so that they are easier to spot.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for
      the feedback in issue 200, which is about pulse.el:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/200>.
    
    + Tweaked the various Apropos faces.  The idea was to remove the colour
      from the pseudo headings so that we would not get an exaggerated
      result of too much variety in the buffer (e.g. that of 'M-x apropos').
      The individual buttons retain their style as links, meaning that they
      are governed by the variable 'modus-themes-links'.
    
    + Revised 'whitespace-line' face to make it look like a warning, as it
      ought to be.  Thanks to Pengji Zhang for the feedback in issue 204:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/204>.
    
    + Reworked the colour-coding of the Hydra and Transient packages.  These
      are meant to tone down some excesses with the standard red and to
      adapt other colours to it.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for providing
      suggestions and helping me tweak those in issue 206:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/206>.
    
    + Recoloured 'transient-argument' to improve its uniqueness in its
      context and to better comply with the expectation of hydra-style
      colour coding, as noted right above.
    
    + Made the 'org-agenda-done' face conform with the customisation option
      'modus-themes-success-deuteranopia'.  This means that it will be
      coloured in blue instead of green when the option is set to a non-nil
      value.
    
    + Grayed out the foreground of the Org block delimiter lines on the
      premise that any extra colouration was not needed, given the presence
      of a gray background and the overall markup of the block.
    
    + Toned down the colouration of the 'org-code' face, so that it is
      consistent with 'org-verbatim' as well as the colours used in opening
      and closing lines of blocks.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for suggesting
      this change in issue 206, though it went through a couple of reviews:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/206>.
    
    + Simplified the inheritance of the 'fixed-pitch' face, which is used
      for internal purposes to ensure alignment of elements in buffers that
      must cope with mixed font configurations, such as an org-mode file
      with 'M-x variable-pitch-font' enabled.
    
      [ Recall that the option 'modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts' can disable
        this feature.  Also note that the 'mixed-fonts' package, or
        equivalent, is not needed while using the Modus themes (though there
        is nothing wrong with having them together). ]
    
    + Reduced the overall intensity of 'org-mode-line-clock-overrun'.
      Thanks to Gustavo Barros for the feedback in issue 208:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/208>.
    
    + Simplified or otherwise tweaked several Org agenda faces to render
      possible the new 'modus-themes-org-agenda' variable, as documented
      above.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for the feedback in issue 208:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/208>.
    
    + Increased ever so slightly the foreground colour of the 'highlight'
      face.  This can help improve the perception of highlights, such as
      upon hovering over a link with the mouse.  Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič
      for reporting the potential problem in issue 216:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/216>.
    
    + Prevented the override of the 'diff-context' face when users assign a
      'bg-only' value to the 'modus-themes-diffs' variable.  This makes it
      consistent with the intent of this style, which is to work with a
      non-nil value for 'diff-font-lock-syntax' (basically to allow the
      usual colour highlights of the underlying code syntax in diff
      buffers).
    
    + Ensured consistency of all prompt-related faces by introducing a new
      face, 'modus-themes-prompt', that is inherited by all others (all
      prompt styles are controlled by the variable 'modus-themes-prompts').
      This was originally implemented with the 'comint-highlight-prompt'
      face, though that could potentially lead to undefined faces if the
      comint library was not loaded.  Whereas the 'modus-themes-prompt'
      guarantees that we pass a known face at all times.  Thanks to Philip
      Kaludercic for bringing this potential bug to my attention in a
      comment to merge request 43:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/43#note_615224855>.
    
    + Removed the background colour from the 'widget-inactive' face.  It
      would create problems in some cases, such as in Custom buffers for
      multiple choice options.
    
    + Refined 'calendar-weekend-header' and 'calendar-weekday-header' to
      emulate the design of physical calendars and remain truthful to the
      expectations set by the default configuration of the calendar.el
      library.  Weekends now use a faint red, while weekdays are rendered in
      the same subtle gray they had before.  The underlying principle is to
      make weekends convey a subtle warning to the effect that "this is not
      a day for work" (notwithstanding precarious economic realities).  As
      noted above, there is an entry in the manual on how to make all days
      look the same, be it gray or faint red.  Evaluate this form:
    
          (info "(modus-themes) Note on calendarel weekday and weekend colors")
    
    Request for feedback on a potential version 2.0.0 of the Modus themes
    =====================================================================
    
    While we maintain a cautious stance towards preserving the default
    styles, there are some cases where we might be forced to introduce
    backward-incompatible changes.
    
    Three such cases that can benefit from user feedback are:
    
    + Issue 196 on 'modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts'
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/196>.
    
    + Issue 198 on 'modus-themes-hl-line'
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/198>
    
      [ Note that 'modus-themes-hl-line now accepts a list of properties as
        described in the opening sections of this entry. ]
    
    + Issue 218 on 'modus-themes-diffs'
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/218>.
    
    Miscellaneous
    =============
    
    + Recalibrated the value of the colour 'bg-hl-line-intense' in the
      palette 'modus-themes-vivendi-colors'.  The change should be
      practically indecipherable, though it slightly improves things in
      certain contexts.
    
    + Refined the intensity of the three main yellow colours in
      'modus-themes-vivendi-colors'.
    
    + Introduced a new 'modus-themes-faces' group so that those are
      decoupled from the customisation options in the various Custom
      buffers.  Thanks to Philip Kaludercic for the patch in merge request
      39: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/39>.
    
    + Updated the manual's "Acknowledgements" section to include all new
      users who contributed to the project.
    
    Thanks again to everyone involved!
    
  • 1.4.0
    15c973f7 · Update to version 1.4.0 ·
    Modus themes version 1.4.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2021-05-25
    
    This entry records the changes made to the project since the release of
    version 1.3.0 on 2021-04-17.  There have been around 100 commits in the
    meantime, as is the norm.
    
    If you are coming from older versions, please consult the change log
    entry for version 1.0.0 with regard to the breaking changes that were
    introduced.
    
    Every colour-related modification is always done in accordance with the
    overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum contrast
    ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their given
    combination (the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    URL of the official manual: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.  Or
    read it with Emacs' Info reader by evaluating this form:
    
        (info "(modus-themes) Top")
    
    Remember that the themes are built into Emacs version 28 (current
    development target), and are available on GNU ELPA, as well as other
    archives.
    
    Customisations variables
    ------------------------
    
    + Redefined the style of 'fg-only' that 'modus-themes-diffs' accepts, so
      that it no longer uses a red-green colour coding, but applies a
      red-blue distinction instead.  The symbol 'fg-only' is a deprecated
      alias for the more descriptive 'fg-only-deuteranopia'.
    
      This is done because green text on a light background is one of the
      worst combinations for the purposes of legibility, as it does not
      stand out in its context and thus forces undesirable compromises.
      Whereas red and blue work well in this case, while making the style
      accessible to users with red-green colour deficiency (deuteranopia).
      To avoid inconsistencies between Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi, we
      replace green with blue in both themes.  A full report is available in
      issue 183 which was created on April 21, 2021:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/183>.
    
    + Introduced the boolean 'modus-themes-success-deuteranopia' which
      replaces all instances of green with blue in contexts where a
      red-green colour coding is in effect (e.g. Org TODO vs DONE keywords,
      isearch current match...).
    
    + Implemented 'modus-themes-mail-citations' to control the colouration
      of cited text in email-related buffers, such as Gnus or message.el.
      It accepts values nil, 'faint', and 'monochrome'.  By default (the nil
      value) the text of citations cycles through blue, green, red, yellow
      depending on the level of depth.
    
    + Expanded the set of options for 'modus-themes-mode-line' to encompass
      the values 'borderless-accented', 'borderless-accented-3d', and
      'borderless-accented-moody'.  Those are variations of existing styles.
      The complete list:
    
      - nil (default)
      - 3d
      - moody
      - borderless
      - borderless-3d
      - borderless-moody
      - accented
      - accented-3d
      - accented-moody
      - borderless-accented
      - borderless-accented-3d
      - borderless-accented-moody
    
    + Renamed the non-nil values that 'modus-themes-org-blocks' accepts from
      'grayscale', 'rainbow' to 'gray-background' and 'tinted-background',
      respectively.  The new symbols better describe their effect on Org
      source blocks, namely, that they affect the background of the block
      rather than the foreground.  The old symbols will still work but are
      considered deprecated aliases of the newer ones.
    
    + Altered the intensity of the 'modus-themes-hl-line' option
      'accented-background' to a more noticeable shade of cyan/teal.  The
      old style was too subtle to have the desired effect.  The value
      'underline-accented' is not affected by this change, as it still uses
      the same subtle background it did before in combination with a more
      pronounced underline colour.
    
    + Deleted all deprecation warnings that concerned the transition from
      version 0.13.0 of the themes to 1.0.0.  Those had been in effect for
      several months, spanning four tagged releases.
    
    Faces or face groups
    --------------------
    
    + Reconsidered the use of colour in all email-related citation faces to
      avoid exaggerations and reduce complexity.  Colour values have been
      tweaked to tone down their overall intensity, while the number of
      colours has been reduced to four.  Gnus and Mu4e have faces for more
      levels of citation depth, though those will simply repeat the
      four-colour cycle.
    
    + Made the 'message-mml' face look consistent with the rest of the
      buffer while composing an email by changing its foreground colour from
      a yellow to a cyan variant.
    
    + Refined several faces in the Notmuch group in the interest of harmony:
    
      - Individual message headers in 'notmuch-show-mode' use bold text in
        addition to their existing subtle background to better stand out in
        their context. The face is 'notmuch-message-summary-face'.
    
      - Tags are no longer set unconditionally to a bold typographic weight.
        They become such for unread threads in 'notmuch-search-mode'
        buffers, as well as for headers of 'notmuch-show-mode'.
    
      - Removal and addition of tags is now denoted by a strike-through and
        an underline effect, respectively, whereas before they both used
        underlines with the only difference being their colour.
    
      - The subject line in 'notmuch-search-mode' buffers uses the main
        foreground instead of a dimmed one.  The field of matching authors
        has a tweaked foreground to keep the tabular view easy to read.
    
      - All cryptography-related faces are simplified to not show a coloured
        background but only use a foreground colour instead.
    
    + Removed direct support for 'counsel-notmuch' as it already inherits
      from the relevant notmuch faces.  The package is thus considered
      indirectly supported.
    
    + Refrained from setting a background to the 'csv-separator-face' as it
      would inevitably colourise the negative space in the tabular view
      created by 'csv-align-mode'.  A red text colour is used instead, even
      though this is not common practice: it is easier to spot for small,
      single characters, such as a comma or a semicolon that is meant to
      have a special meaning.  Thanks to Kevin Fleming for reporting the
      problem and for offering feedback on the choice of colour in issue
      194: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/194>.
    
    + Distinguished between ordinary links and widget buttons by removing
      the underline from the latter (the 'widget-button' face) and altering
      the shade of its foreground colour.  Such widgets are used in Emacs'
      Custom interfaces and can also be found in the default Notmuch "hello"
      buffer that runs 'notmuch-hello-mode'.
    
    + Tweaked the Ediff current faces to be consistent with 'diff-mode' and
      related.  In practice, this only applies when 'modus-themes-diffs' is
      set to a value of 'fg-only-deuteranopia', as it adds a dim background
      to the current diff hunk.  All other styles of 'modus-themes-diffs'
      look the same as before while using Ediff.
    
    + Simplified the faces of 'corfu' to match the current state of the
      upstream project.  Thanks to Daniel Mendler (its developer) for
      reporting this in issue 184:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/184>.
    
    + Refined all Eshell faces so that the output of 'ls' is consistent with
      the overall aesthetic of the themes.  Also made 'eshell-prompt'
      inherit from 'comint-highlight-prompt' to look the same as other such
      prompts (all are configurable by 'modus-themes-prompts').
    
    + Revised 'eshell-prompt-extras' and 'eshell-git-prompt' to use colours
      and typographic weight that better match the style of the various
      configurations they offer.
    
    + Simplified 'eshell-syntax-highlighting' to inherit from the standard
      Eshell faces, where appropriate.
    
    + Adjusted the colour of 'centaur-tabs-active-bar-face' and removed the
      bespoke 'fg-tab-accent' colour from 'modus-themes-operandi-colors' and
      'modus-themes-vivendi-colors' that was only used by it (and which
      should have never been introduced to begin with).
    
    + Updated the 'tab-bar-groups' faces to match changes upstream.  Thanks
      to Fritz Grabo (its developer) for the patch in merge request 35:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/35>.
    
    + Changed the Ibuffer title and group faces to better differentiate
      between group titles and special or non-file-visiting buffers.  Thanks
      to Nicolas De Jaeghere for the patch in merge request 37:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/37>.
    
    + Ensured that all faces that denote a "success" state, or which are
      expected to be coloured in green in a red-green binary, can use an
      appropriate blue colour (or colour combination that involves blue)
      instead when 'modus-themes-success-deuteranopia' is set to a non-nil
      value.
    
    + Added support for the new 'bookmark-face' in Emacs version 28.  This
      means that the built-in bookmark.el library is directly supported by
      the themes.  This face can be disabled by setting 'bookmark-fontify'
      to nil.  Thanks to Mark Barton for reporting the presence of this new
      face and for providing feedback on its style in issue 189:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/189>.
    
    + Aligned 'hes-mode' ('highlight-escape-sequences') with the standard
      font-lock faces for regexp grouping.  This means that it conforms with
      changes to the 'modus-themes-syntax' variable.
    
    + Reconfigured the 'org-quote' face to adapt its style depending on the
      value of 'modus-themes-org-blocks'.  The default is a subtle blue/cold
      foreground colour against the main background.  When a value of
      'gray-background' is assigned to 'modus-themes-org-blocks', the text's
      colour becomes that of the main foreground in order to maintain a good
      level of legibility.  Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič for the feedback in
      issue 190: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/190>.
    
    + Refashioned the 'show-paren-match-expression' face to make it apply a
      bespoke background colour and not override the expression's foreground
      colours.  This face is used by 'show-paren-mode' when the
      customisation variable 'show-paren-style' is set to the 'expression'
      value.  Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič for the feedback in issue 191:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/191>.
    
    + Made headings level 8 use a fine shade of magenta by default instead
      of gray (notwithstanding user changes to 'modus-themes-headings').
      This should have a negligible difference in Org or Outline buffers,
      but is more noticeable when editing Elisp in Emacs28 while also using
      'outline-minor-mode' and with 'outline-minor-mode-highlight' set to
      'override'.  That is because several top-level forms use that heading
      level with those configurations.
    
    Documentation (the manual)
    --------------------------
    
    + Incorporated a sample configuration block with all customisation
      variables and with comment annotations of their available options, in
      an attempt to make it easier for users to discover what the themes
      provide.
    
    + Replaced all instances of "modeline" with "mode line" for consistency
      with the Emacs style.  Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič for the patch that
      started this process in merge request 33:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/33>.
    
    + Wrote note on setting mode line faces that indicate the state of
      'god-mode'.  Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič for the feedback in issue 187:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/187>.  Also
      thanks to Rudolf for updating the applicable hook in merge request 34:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/34>.
    
    + Listed 'org-mode' variables that affect fontification in blocks:
      'org-src-fontify-natively', 'org-fontify-whole-block-delimiter-line',
      and 'org-fontify-quote-and-verse-blocks'.  This complements the
      already documented variables 'org-fontify-whole-heading-line' and
      'org-fontify-done-headline' that pertain to headings.
    
    + Included note on fontifying inline Latex expressions in Org buffers.
      Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič for the feedback in issue 190:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/190>.
    
    + Elaborated on the use of 'face-remap-add-relative' by means of sample
      code that cycles through arbitrary colours for the 'region' face.
      This is filed under the "Do It Yourself" (DIY) section.
    
    + Provided a DIY method for adapting the fontification of Org source
      block delimiter lines to the value of 'modus-themes-org-blocks'.
    
    + Expanded the DIY entry on overriding the saturation of the active
      theme's colours with a method that combines the programmatic approach
      with manual overrides.  The user can thus specify the colour values
      they want to override and let the rest be handled by Elisp.
    
    + Introduced a section with answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
      about the design of the themes as well as recommendations on how to
      ensure optimal reading conditions or start thinking about them.  The
      questions are:
    
      - Is the contrast ratio about adjacent colors?
      - What does it mean to avoid exaggerations?
      - Why are colors mostly variants of blue, magenta, cyan?
      - What is the best setup for legibility?
    
    Miscellaneous
    -------------
    
    + Removed superfluous code from internal functions and adapted their
      indentation to make them easier to read.
    
    + Recalibrated some values in 'modus-themes-vivendi-colors' to ensure
      consistency in luminance with other colours that are used in their
      context.  Those are subtle changes that can only be discerned in
      side-by-side comparisons of the before and after states.  Thanks to
      André Alexandre Gomes for the feedback in issue 193:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/193>.
    
    + Changed the saturation and hueness of the bespoke 'fg-comment-yellow'
      in 'modus-themes-operandi-colors' and 'modus-themes-vivendi-colors' to
      better contrast with its context, while still keeping its luminance
      consistent with its role as a colour for comments in code.  This is
      used when 'modus-themes-syntax' is configured appropriately (read its
      doc string or consult the manual).
    
    + Attempted to add explicit support for the faces of the built-in
      pulse.el library, but ultimately opted against them as the doc string
      of 'pulse-highlight-face' advises against customising it, even though
      it is not clear from the source code in emacs.git what the problem
      could be.  We shall reconsider this case for the next release cycle.
      Thanks to Gustavo Barros for the feedback on several aspects of this
      topic in issues 185 and 200:
    
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/185>
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/200>
    
    + Took the feedback of John Haman in issue 199 as a reminder to complete
      the set of possible values for the 'modus-themes-mode-line' variable:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/199>.
    
  • 1.3.2
    a3ff6dc9 · Update to version 1.3.2 ·
  • 1.3.1
  • 1.3.0
    Modus themes version 1.3.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2021-04-17
    
    This entry records the changes introduced to the project since the
    publication of version 1.2.0 (2021-03-04).  There have been around 100
    commits in the meantime, as is the norm with all releases hitherto.
    
    Every colour-related modification documented herein conforms with the
    overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum contrast
    ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their given
    combination (the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    As the official manual is referenced several times throughout this log,
    make sure to store its URL: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.  Or
    read it from Emacs' Info reader by evaluating this form:
    
        (info "(modus-themes) Top")
    
    If you are coming from older versions, please consult the change log
    entry for version 1.0.0 with regard to the breaking changes that were
    introduced.
    
    Remember that the themes are built into Emacs28, and are available on
    GNU ELPA, as well as other archives.
    
    Customisation options
    ---------------------
    
    + The old 'modus-themes-intense-hl-line' boolean variable has been
      replaced by 'modus-themes-hl-line', which provides several options for
      how to style the current line of 'hl-line-mode'.  To retain the old
      effect, one must do this:
    
          ;; Replacement for (setq modus-themes-intense-hl-line t)
          (setq modus-themes-hl-line 'intense-background)
    
      The list of possible values:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. intense-background
        3. accented-background
        4. underline-neutral
        5. underline-accented
        6. underline-only-neutral
        7. underline-only-accented
    
      The doc string of 'modus-themes-hl-line' as well as the manual
      describe the specifics.  Thanks to Manuel Uberti for the feedback in
      commit b020592:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/commit/b020592e1a96d6e00d7d03faf9c293ec6081d49c>.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-mode-line' variable now accepts three new "accented"
      styles that complement the existing set:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. 3d
        3. moody
        4. borderless
        5. borderless-3d
        6. borderless-moody
        7. accented
        8. accented-3d
        9. accented-moody
    
    + The 'modus-themes-region' is extended with two new options of an
      "accent" background:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. no-extend
        3. bg-only
        4. bg-only-no-extend
        5. accent
        6. accent-no-extend
    
    + The default value of 'modus-themes-headings' for per-level styles can
      now be set to nil.  This fixes an inconsistency between the fallback
      value, which accepted nil, and the per-level styles which did not.
      Thanks to Mauro Aranda for reporting this in issue 163:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/163>.
    
      Please read the manual for the specifics of this variable, as it is an
      alist that accepts several possible combinations.
    
    Updates to the manual
    ---------------------
    
    + Rewrote the sections that cover the aforementioned customisation
      options.
    
      - For 'modus-themes-mode-line', we had to revise the recommendation
        for setting 'face-near-same-color-threshold' to 45000.  That value
        is appropriate for the 'moody' and 'borderless-moody' options.
        Whereas for 'accented-moody' the number should be raised to 70000.
        Thanks to Nicolas De Jaeghere for providing this piece of
        information:
        <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/commit/ab6ba698269f012ec880b690282264649bfb3b0d#note_551342198>
    
    + Rephrased the GNU Free Documentation License quote to match the style
      of other manuals that are also built into Emacs.
    
    + Documented 'org-mode' variables that affect the looks of various
      fontification styles.
    
    + Simplified the 'kbd' macro that is declared in modus-themes.org to
      allow GNU ELPA's build system to parse the file for Emacs 26.
    
    + Documented existing support for 'tab-bar-mode' and 'tab-line-mode'.
    
    + Wrote a note on how to configure the 'dimmer.el' library by Neil
      Okamoto, in order to guarantee consistent results with the themes.
      The key is to use the RGB colour space instead of CIELAB.
    
    + Included note on shr.el fonts and how those are used by EWW and
      Elfeed.
    
    + Added a "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) section on how to remap buffer-local
      faces.
    
    + Detailed a DIY method to make the buffer-local backdrop of a pdf-tools
      page use a distinct colour than the default white for Modus Operandi.
      Extended the same principle to Modus Vivendi and described how to
      adapt to theme changes (such as via 'modus-themes-toggle').  Thanks to
      Utkarsh Singh for providing feedback on this topic in issue 175:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/175>.
    
    + Elaborated on DIY techniques to programmatically override the
      saturation of all colours specified by the active Modus theme.  Thanks
      to user pRot0ta1p for the feedback in issue 166:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/166>.
    
    Support for packages
    --------------------
    
    These are added to the already comprehensive list of explicitly
    supported packages:
    
    + corfu
    + embark
    
    + pandoc-mode.  Thanks to Farasha Euker for the feedback in issue 171:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/171>.
    
    + tab-bar-groups
    + telega
    + vertico
    
    Also added support for the 'help-key-binding' face which is part of
    Emacs 28.
    
    Changes to already supported faces or face groups
    -------------------------------------------------
    
    + Renamed all internal faces that the themes defined from
      "modus-theme-*" to "modus-themes-*".
    
    + Refashioned all Ediff faces in the process of a major review of this
      tools' overall design.  The manifold changes are:
    
      - All inactive diffs respect the underlying fontification
        (e.g. programming syntax highlighting).  Before they would override
        it with a gray foreground.
    
      - All inactive diffs have been toned down, as their background is a
        finer shade of gray than the prominent one that was used before.
    
      - There no longer is a visual distinction between even and odd
        inactive diffs (by means of different shades of gray).  We are of
        the opinion that such subtleties, whose utility is marginal at best,
        have no place in themes that are designed for accessibility.
    
      - All bespoke gray colour combinations that were only intended for
        those inactive diffs have thus been removed from each theme's
        palette.
    
      - Active diffs follow the same style as diff-mode, to ensure
        theme-wide consistency (all diff styles are controlled by the
        variable 'modus-themes-diffs').
    
      This topic was discussed at length (with screenshots) in issue 169:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/169>.  Thanks to
      peniblec and Nicolas De Jaeghere for their feedback.
    
    + Made 'smerge-markers' and 'vdiff-closed-fold-face' look like the
      headings in 'diff-mode' in the interest of consistency, especially
      while configuring the 'modus-themes-diffs' variable.
    
    + Ensured consistency between all faces that pertain to key bindings in
      contexts where the hint to the key is active, in that pressing the key
      performs the action (e.g. Magit's transient buffers, which-key,...).
      The 'help-key-binding' for Emacs 28 is not included in this group,
      because it applies in cases where the keys are not active, such as in
      Help buffers.
    
    + Refined 'epa-validity-disabled' and 'epa-validity-high' faces.  The
      former no longer uses a background, as that was considered an
      exaggeration.  While the latter is cast in a cyan hue instead of green
      for greater clarity (this relates to the general push to optimise for
      red-green colour deficiency, which means to only use green where it is
      absolutely necessary and, in such cases, to provide for a blue-ish
      alternative, as with the 'deuteranopia' value that can be assigned to
      'modus-themes-diffs').
    
    + Reworked 'ace-window', 'avy', and 'magit-blame' faces to ensure that
      their overlays do not inherit the face properties of underlying text,
      such as a different font family or height.  Thanks to Nicolas De
      Jaeghere for the multiple merge requests and the concomitant feedback:
    
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/27>.
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/29>.
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/30>.
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/31>.
      - <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/32>.
    
      Also thanks to Damien Cassou for reporting an intermediate problem
      with 'avy' in issue 177; a problem that was eventually addressed by
      Nicolas De Jaeghere in merge request 31 (cited above):
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/177>.
    
    + Optimised the colour combinations used by 'avy' to improve the
      distinction between consecutive characters.
    
    + Reduced the brightness of EWW certificate faces, as they would attract
      disproportionate attention to themselves.
    
    + Reworked all EWW text field and button faces to look more like what
      they are supposed to.
    
    + Removed the slant and distinct foreground from the 'org-quote' face,
      as they would interfere with emphasis within the quote block.  Thanks
      to Farasha Euker for the feedback in issue 171:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/171>.
    
    + Reduced the intensity in colouration of 'org-code' and 'org-macro' in
      order to avoid exaggerations and prevent their compounding effect in
      technical documents that include a high concentration of those faces.
      They still retain their overall character and continue to look like
      variants of 'org-verbatim'.
    
    + Extended support for Selectrum's new 'selectrum-quick-keys-highlight'
      and 'selectrum-quick-keys-match'.
    
    + Adjusted a few bongo faces for improved consistency and a more
      pleasant result overall.  Quote from commit 07224cda08:
    
          Refine bongo faces for consistency
    
          The previous design was meant to keep the track fields distinct
          from each other.  However the use of yellow was not good
          aesthetically: it does not fit with the rest of the theme.
    
          Upon further experimentation, I realised that the album field
          (yellow) is only present when the artist and title fields are also
          available: first is the title, then the artist, and finally the
          album.  This is true even with 'bongo-join-inserted-tracks' set to
          a non-nil value.  So changing the face from yellow to a neutral
          value is safe.
    
          The other two faces are adapted to look better in the new context.
    
    + Made more command prompt faces respond to changes in the variable
      'modus-themes-prompts'.  This concerns faces from the groups cider,
      circe, erc, indium, rcirc.
    
    + Refashioned typescript faces, making them more prominent by default,
      while also exposing them to the value of 'modus-themes-syntax'.
    
    + Revised the style of 'info-colors-ref-item-command'.  This makes
      commands look the same as functions, which is technically correct.  It
      also predicates the exact style on the value of the variable
      'modus-themes-syntax'.
    
    + Made all enh-ruby-mode faces adapt to 'modus-themes-syntax'.  Same for
      julia.
    
    + Reconfigured all ztree faces for stylistic consistency.  The
      'ztreep-diff-model-add-face' now responds to the 'deuteranopia' value
      that can be passed to 'modus-themes-diffs'.
    
    + Appended the ':extend t' attribute to 'gnus-summary-cancelled' and
      'gnus-summary-selected'.  These are only noticeable on Emacs 28
      following commit 88409b21c2 in emacs.git.
    
    + Tweaked all faces of 'highlight-changes-mode' to better deliver on the
      intent of that mode.
    
    + Opted to unconditionally render all 'dired-async' faces in a bold
      typographic weight, instead of basing them on a non-nil value for
      'modus-themes-bold-constructs'.  Also changed 'dired-async-message' to
      a blue foreground, which further improves the themes' performance for
      red-green colour deficiency.
    
    + Adjusted the colours of some 'notmuch-crypto-*' faces to better convey
      their meaning.
    
    + Removed remaining conditional logic for underline styles in some
      spell- and linter- related faces to ensure that all such cases are
      controlled by the variable 'modus-themes-lang-checkers' (building on
      work that had been done in the past).
    
    + Stopped changing 'keycast-key' to match the modeline style, as that
      diluted the meaning of the variable 'modus-themes-mode-line'.
    
    + Tweaked calendar and diary faces for stylistic effect, except for the
      'diary' face which has been converted from a green to a blue variant
      for the purposes of coping with cases of red-green colour deficiency.
    
    Miscellaneous
    -------------
    
    + Clarified the changes in the backward-incompatible transition from
      version 0.13.0 of the themes to >= 1.0.0.  Thanks to Damien Cassou for
      reporting the absence of easy-to-find information in issue 174:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/174>.
    
    + There were three point releases after 1.2.0 which refined certain
      aspects of the themes' packaging so that they could work both as
      built-in themes for Emacs as well as in package format via the likes
      of GNU ELPA.  Those issues were eventually resolved by Basil
      L. Contovounesios:
    
      - Issue 162: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/162>.
      - Emacs bug#45068: <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=45068#218>.
    
    + Rewrote the 'modus-themes-headings' variable's declaration to improve
      its presentation in Custom interfaces.  Thanks to Mauro Aranda for
      submitting the patch for commit 1c60927ebd.
    
    + Applied the ':format' keyword to all 'defcustom' forms, based on the
      aforementioned patch.  This should make all options look better in the
      various Custom interfaces.  Thanks to Mauro Aranda for the feedback in
      issue 163: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/163>.
    
    + Refined the colour values 'bg-alt' and 'bg-dim' in 'modus-vivendi' to
      improve their instantiation on Textual User Interfaces.  In
      particular, recalibrated the blue channel of light so that when the
      TUI cannot render the colour directly, it defaults to a gray value
      instead of a dark blue.
    
    + Added a "Last-Modified" meta header to modus-themes.el, with gets
      updated automatically and uses a timestamp.  This helps users who
      track the themes' git repo directly.  Thanks to Togan Muftuoglu for
      the feedback in issue 168:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/168>.
    
    + Expanded the palette of each theme with accent values that are
      reserved for use in the tab-bar.  Those are used by the newly
      supported 'tab-bar-groups' package.
    
    + Recalibrated a few colour combinations to improve their resulting
      legibility.  The changes should not be noticeable to the untrained
      eye.  Interested parties can consult commit 349ea4a943.
    
    + Tweaked the hueness of the 'yellow-active' colour of 'modus-operandi'.
    
    Thanks once again to everyone involved!
    
  • 1.2.3
    0a36239b · Update to version 1.2.3 ·
  • 1.2.2
    ece5f3b9 · Update to version 1.2.2 ·
  • 1.2.1
  • 1.2.0
    68dff175 · Update to version 1.2.0 ·
    Modus themes version 1.2.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2021-03-04
    
    This entry records the changes introduced to the project since the
    publication of version 1.1.0 (2021-01-24).  There have been close to 100
    commits in the meantime.
    
    Every colour-related modification documented herein conforms with the
    overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum contrast
    ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their given
    combination (the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    As the official manual is referenced several times throughout this log,
    make sure to store its URL: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.  Or
    read it from Emacs' Info reader by evaluating this form:
    
        (info "(modus-themes) Top")
    
    If you are coming from older versions, please consult the change log
    entry for version 1.0.0 with regard to the breaking changes that were
    introduced.
    
    Prior notice: Upgrading the themes in Emacs28 and GNU ELPA
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    
    Emacs28, the current development target, now includes a 'require-theme'
    function.  It is a prerequisite to upgrading the Modus themes to their
    current version.  Prior to the definition of that function, the themes
    could not transition from their 0.13.0 version to >=1.0.0.  Special
    thanks to Basil L. Contovounesios for making it happen, as well Mauro
    Aranda and Eli Zaretskii for their feedback and support.
    
    Expect the Modus themes in upstream Emacs to be updated shortly after
    the publication of this document.
    
    GNU ELPA currently ships version 0.12.0 of the two standalone packages
    'modus-operandi-theme' and 'modus-vivendi-theme'.  This will change in
    the immediate future, as a new 'modus-themes' package will succeed them.
    That new package will be built directly from emacs.git, as it must now
    become a ':core' entity instead of being listed as an ':external' one.
    
    Again, expect a patch to be applied to elpa.git shortly after this
    document goes live.
    
    Customisation options
    ---------------------
    
    [ All variables and their values are documented in the themes' manual.
      The default value is always nil. ]
    
    + The new boolean 'modus-themes-subtle-line-numbers' variable will make
      the effect of 'display-line-numbers-mode' more subtle when set to a
      non-nil value.  It removes the underlying background of the unfocused
      lines while toning down their foreground.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-diffs' variable now accepts a 'deuteranopia' value.
      This optimises for red-green colour deficiency in all modes that show
      diffs (diff-mode, ediff, Magit...).  In practice, all instances of
      green are replaced with appropriate blue hues.  For more on the
      matter, read the report which also includes pictures:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2021-02-25-modus-themes-diffs-deuteranopia/>.
    
    + The 'modus-themes-syntax' variable now reads 'faint-yellow-comments'
      as a valid value.  This has the same scope as the existing 'faint'
      value with the added effect of assigning a yellow tint to comments: it
      tones down the saturation of colours that apply to code syntax
      (standard font-lock faces and others inheriting from them).
    
    + The 'modus-themes-links' variable is expanded to accept the new value
      of 'neutral-underline-only': it removes the foreground from the link
      and draws a neutral gray underline below it.
    
    Refinements to existing packages or face groups
    -----------------------------------------------
    
    + Refashioned all faces that pertain to emails, including Gnus, Mu4e,
      Notmuch, and the standard 'message.el' library.  This concerns the
      colours that apply to the message header keys and their values, as
      well as quote levels.
    
      - Introduced more contrasting hues for headings and made more
        considerate use of bold typography.  The new colour combinations are
        better suited for the task of delivering a sense of structure;
        structure that is at once effective and subtle.
    
      - Applied less intense colours throughout all quotation levels.
    
      - Revised the sequencing of hues in quotation levels to allow distinct
        levels to stand out more without relying on excessive saturation.
    
      - Aligned the styling of Notmuch header dates with their counterparts
        in other similar contexts, in pursuit of theme-wide consistency.
    
    + Rewrote the faces of EBDB to achieve a better sense of structure.
    
    + Refined the colour combinations of change-log and log-view buffers to
      make it easier to discern distinct elements.
    
    + Tweaked the colours of certain Elfeed constructs to improve the
      overall presentation of its search buffers.
    
    + Changed the colour combinations of 'M-x re-builder' to amplify the
      distinction between the matching regexp groups while still reducing
      their overall intensity.
    
    + Reconfigured the 'diff-changed' face to always extend its background
      to the edge of the window.  Such "changed" lines are visible in
      'diff-mode' buffers when the command 'diff-unified->context' is
      invoked.
    
    + Tweaked the colour combinations of ancillary faces in diff buffers
      when the variable 'modus-themes-diffs' is set to the value 'fg-only'.
      In particular:
    
      - Removed the subtle background from the diff hunk headings and changed
        their colour to ensure good visibility---guarantees a sense of
        structure.
    
      - Made the context lines inherit the default foreground colour (pure
        black/white), so that it contrasts better with red, green, and
        yellow text.
    
      - Applied an accented foreground to the diff header.  This is to
        ensure that it is not mistaken for a diff hunk's context.
    
      All these guarantee that the foreground-only highlights in line-wise
      differences draw more attention to themselves.
    
    + Aligned all the standard hi-* faces with their default aesthetics.
      Those are used by commands such as 'highlight-symbol-at-point'.
      Thanks to Philip K. for the valuable feedback in issue 157:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/157>.
    
    + Removed obsolete Consult faces and added new ones, so as to remain in
      sync with the latest developments in that project.  Thanks to Daniel
      Mendler (Consult's maintainer) for reporting the inconsistency in
      issue 155: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/155>.
    
      - 'consult-preview-line' now retains fontification on the current
        line, instead of applying its own foreground.
    
      - 'consult-narrow-indicator' is refashioned to be colour-coded in a
        consistent way with 'consult-async-split', as both denote the
        delineation of a given scope.
    
      - 'consult-imenu-prefix' contrasts better with text on its current
        line, while it adapts to possible customisations performed on the
        Consult front.
    
    + Expanded the coverage of 'marginalia' faces to two include
      'marginalia-char' and 'marginalia-type'.  This is done in the interest
      of internal consistency between the elements of this set, as their
      defaults were also accessible (they inherit from standard faces that
      we already support).
    
    + Opted to render the Notmuch logo in a neutral gray backdrop.  This was
      deemed necessary as the logo is an immutable image file that consists
      of black and white strokes.  Black and white are the main background
      values of 'modus-vivendi' and 'modus-operandi' respectively, which
      could lead to confusion.  The neutral gray ensures that the logo is
      visible at all times.  Thanks to Utkarsh Singh for the feedback in
      issue 122: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/122>.
    
    + Refined the dedicated colour values used for diff hunk headings, as
      seen in diff-mode buffers or Magit.  The new colours yield text that
      is easier to read by slightly toning down the combined intensity of
      background+foreground.
    
    + Removed the subtle background of 'diff-header' and 'diff-file-header'.
      The header's foreground and textual representation suffice to render
      it distinct in its context.
    
    + Tweaked 'org-agenda-structure' and 'org-scheduled' to enhance the
      usability of Org Agenda buffers.
    
      - Made 'org-agenda-structure' use the largest possible height that we
        expose to users: 'modus-themes-scale-5'.
    
      - Re-calibrated the hueness of 'org-scheduled' and amplified its
        saturation, in order to better convey the meaning of a scheduled
        task.
    
      Thanks to Morgan Smith for the valuable feedback in issue 153:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/153>.
    
    + Tweaked the faces of the 'bongo' package to enhance the
      distinctiveness of the constructs they style.
    
    + Adjusted the overall aesthetic of calendar faces in the interest of
      theme-wide consistency.
    
    + Aligned the visual metaphors of 'org-code' with those of 'org-macro'
      and 'org-verbatim', by ensuring that a subtle background is present
      behind the affected text, while the foreground conforms with the norms
      of the 'modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts' customisation option.
    
    + Made quoted text in Info buffers look the same as 'org-verbatim' and
      Markdown's inline code.
    
    + Instructed the faces of 'info-colors' to inherit from appropriate
      font-lock faces.  This guarantees that everything works as intended
      with the various values of 'modus-themes-syntax'.
    
    + Refined the language tag of Markdown fenced blocks so that it does
      attract unwarranted attention while delivering on its intended
      purpose.
    
    + Rendered explicit the slant of ace-window hints, guaranteeing that it
      does not inherit from the underlying text.  Thanks to Nicolas De
      Jaeghere for the patch:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/27>.
    
      [ Some more changes have been discussed, but those require tweaks to
        the upstream package. ]
    
    + Ensured that the 'org-tree-slide-header-overlay-face' never draws an
      overline when the variable 'modus-themes-headings' includes a relevant
      setting for heading level 1.  Such as with the following example (all
      customisation options are documented in the themes' manual):
    
        (setq modus-themes-headings
              '((1 . section)
                ...))
    
    + Extended support for the new 'tab-line-tab-inactive-alternate' face as
      that occurs in Emacs28 (current development target).  It comes into
      effect when the variable 'tab-line-tab-face-functions' includes a
      value of 'tab-line-tab-face-inactive-alternating'.
    
    Newly supported packages
    ------------------------
    
    + bbdb :: Thanks to Nicolas De Jaeghere in issue 128:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/128>.
    
    + mmm-mode :: Thanks to Davor Rotim for the feedback in issue 161:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/161>.
    
    + quick-peek :: Thanks to Burgess Chang for the feedback in issue 151:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/151>
    
    + selectrum-prescient :: This new package was brought to my attention by
      Manuel Uberti.  The intent is to phase out the faces in Selectrum,
      namely 'selectrum-primary-highlight', 'selectrum-secondary-highlight',
      though those will still be supported by the Modus themes for the
      foreseeable future.
    
    + shortdoc
    
    + spray
    
    + terraform-mode :: Thanks to Kevin Fleming for the feedback in issue
      159: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/159>.
    
    + vc-dir (Emacs28)
    
    Theme-related contributions to the wider community
    --------------------------------------------------
    
    + Contributed the faces for 'vc-dir' in Emacs28 and applied them to all
      VC backends: <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46358> and
      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46745>.
    
    + Contributed a new face and some related tweaks to Emacs'
      'shortdoc.el': <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46748>.
    
    + Added faces to the 'tab-bar-echo-area.el' package:
      <https://github.com/fritzgrabo/tab-bar-echo-area/pull/2>.
    
    + Reported issue that led to the review of the header face in
      'org-tree-slide': <https://github.com/takaxp/org-tree-slide/issues/38>.
    
    + Helped refine the faces of the 'rlist.el' package:
      <https://gitlab.com/mmemmew/rlist/-/commit/386f506d0110bebedd3a48ff972adba96e2232eb>.
    
    Documentation updates
    ---------------------
    
    + Wrote about the indirect support for the 'goggles' package.  I had
      helped write its faces, as was documented in the changelog for version
      1.1.0 of the themes.  Thanks to Manuel Uberti for bringing this to my
      attention in issue 158:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/158>.
    
    + Explained that any changes to 'custom-theme-load-path' and/or
      'custom-theme-directory' should be performed before the themes are
      loaded.  Thanks to Adrian Manea for the feedback in issue 156:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/156>.
    
    + Included the symbol 'bg-only' in the 'modus-themes-diffs' section of
      the manual.  Thanks to user "iSeeU" for reporting the omission:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/154>.
    
    + Expanded the manual's entry on the semantics of the optional heading
      scale used by the themes (the variables 'modus-themes-scale-[1-5]').
      The values 1-4 apply to regular headings, with 4 being the largest on
      the scale.  While 'modus-themes-scale-5' is reserved for special
      headers, such as Org '#+title:' or the Org Agenda's structure.  Recall
      that those variables only come into effect if the boolean variable
      'modus-themes-scale-headings' is set to a non-nil value (it is nil by
      default).
    
    + Made several changes to the 'modus-themes.org' file in an effort to
      improve the accuracy of the generated Texinfo markup.  Thanks to Glenn
      Morris and Richard Stallman for their valuable feedback in
      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=45143>.
    
    + Recorded a note in the manual on the intended colouration of
      backgrounds applied by 'mmm-mode'.  It explains what the constraints
      are from an accessibility standpoint and how users can configure
      things locally for more colourful, yet inaccessible, backgrounds.
      Thanks to Davor Rotim for the valuable feedback in issue 161:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/161>.
    
    + Refined the manual's note on prism.el, simplifying the code samples
      and clarifying the commentary.
    
    + Wrote indices for concepts, variables, functions, which are rendered
      in the Info manual.
    
    + Elaborated on the possibility---and relative merits---of implementing
      a theme-agnostic hook for advanced face configurations, as opposed to
      relying on 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook'.  Thanks to Daniel
      Mendler for the valuable feedback in issue 131:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/131>.
    
    Miscellaneous
    -------------
    
    + Rewrote the documentation string of the 'deftheme' declaration of
      'modus-operandi' and 'modus-vivendi'.
    
    + Provided links to the Info nodes that discuss each of the 'defcustom'
      declarations.
    
    + Wrote doc strings for every custom face that the themes define.
    
  • 1.1.1
    1.1.1
    
    Refer to tag 1.1.0 for a complete change log.
  • 1.1.0
    97fa6679 · Update to version 1.1.0 ·
    Modus themes version 1.1.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2021-01-24
    
    This entry records the changes introduced to the project since the
    publication of version 1.0.0 (2020-12-05).  There have been around 150
    commits in the meantime, qualifying this as one of the largest releases
    to date.
    
    As always, every colour-related modification documented herein conforms
    with the overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum
    contrast ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their
    given combination (conformance with the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    As the official manual is referenced several times, make sure to store
    its URL: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.
    
    If you are coming from older versions, please consult the change log
    entry for version 1.0.0.
    
    Overview
    --------
    
    + We have brought back the options that were present in version 0.13.0
      or earlier which allowed users to override colors for either---or
      both---of Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi.  Compared to the old
      mechanism, the new one is more robust and should work regardless of
      whether users run byte compiled code or not.  This is considered and
      advanced, "do-it-yourself" pathway to theme customisation.  It is
      discussed at length in the manual.
    
    + The new 'modus-themes-with-colors' macro makes it possible to read
      palette variables from the active theme and, thus, pass them to
      arbitrary functions or variables.  Again, this is part of the advanced
      customisations that are covered in the manual.
    
    + Several of the existing customisation options provide new stylistic
      variants, further expanding their utility.  While there are some new
      customisations altogether.  Combined with the above, we provide the
      infrastructure that allows the themes to adapt gracefully to a variety
      of circumstances and cover a broad range of demands.
    
    + More packages are added to the already comprehensive list of supported
      face groups.
    
    + Some of the supported faces have benefited from further, albeit
      subtle, refinements, demonstrating our commitment to consistency as
      well as our attention to detail.
    
    + Two reports on such "further refinements" were published on the code
      log section of protesilaos.com: <https://protesilaos.com/codelog>.
    
    + We have more people contributing to the project (and assigning
      copyright to the FSF---as the themes are part of Emacs) and newer
      users reporting issues.  Also, there is anecdotal evidence from
      several sources on an increased interest to make new or existing faces
      accessible by default (such as by copying colour combinations from the
      themes).
    
    New customisation options
    -------------------------
    
    + The existing 'modus-themes-mode-line' variable now supports three new
      borderless styles: 'borderless', 'borderless-3d', 'borderless-moody'.
    
      - The 'borderless' value uses the same colors as the default (nil
        value), but removes the border effect.  This is done by making the
        box property use the same color as the background, effectively
        blending the two and creating some padding.
    
      - The 'borderless-3d' and 'borderless-moody' approximate the '3d' and
        'moody' options respectively, while removing the borders.  However,
        to ensure that the inactive modelines remain visible, they apply a
        slightly more prominent background to them than what their
        counterparts do (same inactive background as with the default).
    
      The complete list of options:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. 3d
        3. moody
        4. borderless
        5. borderless-3d
        6. borderless-moody
    
    + 'modus-themes-lang-checkers' provides several styles for spell
      checkers and code linters with regard to how they underline text.  The
      default (nil) is to use a colour-coded wavy underline, without
      changing the foreground of the affected text.  Other options include
      the ability to set a straight underline and to control the saturation
      of the foreground, while one also provides for a change in the
      background of the text in question.  The valid symbols are as follows
      (read the manual for more on the matter):
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. straight-underline
        3. subtle-foreground
        4. subtle-foreground-straight-underline
        5. intense-foreground
        6. intense-foreground-straight-underline
        7. colored-background
    
    + The 'modus-themes-org-habit' lets users pick between three styles for
      the 'org-habit' table: (1) nil (the default), which uses a total of
      eight colours, (2) 'simplified' which reduces the effective colours to
      four, while applying less saturated hues, and (3) 'traffic-light'
      which bring the colour count to three, thus blending the "clear" and
      "ready" states for workflows where the distinction between is not
      useful.
    
      Please read the manual for a more detailed description of those
      variants.
    
      Thanks to Gustavo Barros for suggesting the idea, providing user
      feedback on stylistic choices, as well as sharing insights on the
      workflow that made the 'traffic-light' style possible:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/135>.
    
    + 'modus-themes-variable-pitch-ui' when set to a non-nil value applies a
      proportionately spaced typeface (controlled by the 'variable-pitch'
      face) to the User Interface, specifically the mode line, header line,
      and tab-{bar,line}.
    
    + The existing 'modus-themes-links' variable now has a colourless
      stylistic alternative: 'underline-only'.  The available styles:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. faint
        3. neutral-underline
        4. faint-neutral-underline
        5. no-underline
        6. underline-only
    
    + The existing 'modus-themes-prompts' variable has two new grayscale
      styles: 'subtle-gray', 'intense-gray'.  Furthermore, their old
      'subtle' and 'intense' values have more informative aliases in the
      form of 'subtle-accented' and 'intense-accented'.  All available
      values:
    
        1. nil (default)
        2. subtle-accented ('subtle' remains for backward-compatibility)
        3. intense-accented ('intense' remains for backward-compatibility)
        4. subtle-gray
        5. intense-gray
    
    + The existing 'modus-themes-headings' variable now accepts two new
      styles: 'no-color', 'no-color-no-bold'.  All stylistic variants:
    
        1.  nil (default fallback option---covers all heading levels)
        2.  t (default style for a single heading, when the fallback differs)
        3.  no-bold
        4.  line
        5.  line-no-bold
        6.  rainbow
        7.  rainbow-line
        8.  rainbow-line-no-bold
        9.  highlight
        10. highlight-no-bold
        11. rainbow-highlight
        12. rainbow-highlight-no-bold
        13. section
        14. section-no-bold
        15. rainbow-section
        16. rainbow-section-no-bold
        17. no-color
        18. no-color-no-bold
    
      Please read the manual for instructions on how to apply those
      universally or on a per-level basis.
    
    Added support for packages
    --------------------------
    
    + cfrs (used by treemacs)
    + cperl-mode
    + diredc
    
    + display-fill-column-indicator-mode.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for the
      feedback: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/148>.
    
    + evil-snipe.  Thanks to Peter Wu for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/139>.
    
    + isl (isearch-light).  Thanks to Manuel Uberti for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/144>.
    
    + marginalia
    + org-tree-slide
    + recursion-indicator
    
    + solaire.  Thanks to CsBigDataHub1 for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/137>.
    
    Refinements to already supported faces
    --------------------------------------
    
    + Reviewed the 'rainbow-delimiters' faces.  Everything is documented in
      a separate report (with screenshots).  The short version is that we
      pay close attention to detail and are willing to go to great lengths
      in pursuit of improving the overall user experience:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-12-27-modus-themes-review-rainbow-delimiters/>.
    
    + Updated the dedicated colours for 'whitespace-mode'.  The background
      should now be easier to discern.  Also removed any remaining
      inconsistencies.  Thanks to Toon Claes for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/149>.
    
    + Refined the faces of regexp constructs for strings affected by certain
      values passed to the 'modus-themes-syntax' option.  This is done to
      disambiguate the backslashes and grouping delimiters from the rest of
      the string.  The relevant values for 'modus-themes-syntax' are:
    
      - green-strings
      - yellow-comments-green-strings
      - alt-syntax
      - alt-syntax-yellow-comments
    
      The default colour for strings is blue, while regexp faces are yellow
      and red, whereas in those variants the strings become green, hence the
      need to make regexp faces more distinct (blue and magenta contrast
      better with green and also between themselves, thus matching the
      alternative aesthetics).
    
    + Reviewed dictionary.el faces (which ships with Emacs 28):
    
      - Made 'dictionary-reference-face' look like all other links.
    
      - Removed all properties from 'dictionary-word-definition-face':
        the default sets a font family, which can create inconsistencies.
    
      - Converted 'dictionary-word-entry-face' into comment-like text.
    
    + Refined and expanded the faces of Consult.
    
      - Made its grep commands look the same as those of all other grep
        tools.
    
      - Ensured that line number previews, such as for the 'consult-line'
        command use their own style of a subtle foreground instead of
        inheriting from the 'line-number' face.  This is to avoid cases
        where previewed numbers and actual line numbers could be conflated
        for one another.
    
      - Removed the foreground pertinent to 'consult-imenu-prefix', as its
        bold weight combined with the structure of Imenu indices was deemed
        sufficient to differentiate it from actual 'consult-imenu' targets.
    
    + Eliminated exaggerations in the use of colour for various 'which-key'
      faces.
    
    + Removed the needless background from the 'log-view-commit-body' face.
      This is a new face that ships with Emacs 28 (its inclusion upstream
      was documented in the last changelog entry).
    
    + Applied a subtle background to the 'log-view-message' face, in the
      interest of improving the usability of its interface, in particular,
      to contribute to heightened situational awareness while invoking
      'log-view-toggle-entry-display' in buffers such as those produced by
      'vc-print-root-log'.
    
    + Introduced a neutral background for all 'outline-minor-faces' instead
      of merely mirroring the style of 'outline-mode' headings.  This is
      because it can sometimes be hard to tell whether 'outline-minor-mode'
      is active, provided certain fairly common configurations in the
      'modus-themes-headings' user option (refer to the manual for all
      customisation options).
    
    + Tweaked 'diff-mode' headings.
    
      - Adjusted the values of the dedicated colours for diff headings in
        order to amplify their relative contrast.
    
      - Assigned a bold typographic weight to the 'diff-hunk-header' face so
        as to enforce a greater sense of structure.
    
      - Instructed 'diff-function' to inherit 'modus-theme-diff-heading' in
        order to eliminate exaggerations in colouration.
    
    + Removed unnecessary underline from 'selectrum-current-candidate'.
      Thanks to Daniel Mendler for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/132>.
    
    + Made 'counsel-outline' inherit from the underlying Org faces.  Also
      corrected the style of 'counsel-outline-default' to use the main
      foreground colour.  Thanks to Gustavo Barros for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/134>.
    
    + Prevented headings, ultimately governed by the 'modus-themes-headings'
      user option, from inheriting the 'default' face as that could lead to
      unintended consequences, such as by retaining a background colour when
      none was expected.
    
    + Refashioned all faces that specified a foreground value of 'fg-alt' to
      inherit the 'shadow' face instead ('fg-alt' is the colour that is
      used, for example, in code comments by default).  This makes it
      possible for users to enact change across the theme just by tweaking
      'shadow'.
    
    + Fixed 'ruler-mode' text scaling adjustment, to make it cope well with
      'text-scale-adjust' and relevant commands.  Also introduced minor
      stylistic changes to the remainder of the 'ruler-mode' faces.
    
    + Eliminated the potentially problematic form of ':foreground nil' from
      the 'org-ellipsis' face.  In such cases it is always better to either
      specify no foreground whatsoever, or declare an unspecified value.
    
    Patches from the community
    --------------------------
    
    Remember that the themes are part of Emacs and, thus, contributions that
    exceed a cumulative total of ~15 lines require the assignment of
    copyright to the Free Software Foundation.  Please consult the themes'
    manual on the matter.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere added support for 'exwm-floating-border-color':
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/15>.
    
    + Anders Johansson added support for 'helm-fd-finish':
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/16>.
    
    + Carlo Zancanaro fixed misquoting of 'tuareg-font-lock-multistage-face':
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/17>.
    
    + Xinglu Chen expanded Notmuch support to all its remaining faces:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/18>.
    
    + Kostadin Ninev added support for Dired+:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/19>.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere expanded the supported items of 'pdf-faces'.  Also
      added an entry to the manual pertaining to link hints and the
      requisite setup:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/20>.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere wrote the new 'modus-themes-with-colors' macro,
      which is documented at length in the manual:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/21>.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere set up the infrastructure that grants users the
      ability to override palette colors; an option that was removed in the
      transition from version 0.13.0 to 1.0.0.  The relevant variables are
      'modus-themes-colors-operandi', 'modus-themes-colors-vivendi' (again,
      consult the manual):
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/23>.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere deleted the 'modus-themes-core.el' file and merged
      its contents into the main 'modus-themes.el' library:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/24> and
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/25>.
    
    + Nicolas De Jaeghere made the 'compilation-info' face consistent with
      other compilation faces in terms of their optional bold weight:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/26>.
    
    Any remaining faults that may exist, despite our best intentions to
    remove them, are those of the maintainer and will be addressed as soon
    as they are identified.
    
    FSF copyright status:
    
    | Full name           | Copyright    |
    |---------------------+--------------|
    | Anders Johansson    | covered      |
    | Carlo Zancanaro     | not required |
    | Kostadin Ninev      | covered      |
    | Nicolas De Jaeghere | covered      |
    | Xinglu Chen         | not required |
    
    Theme-related contributions to the wider community
    --------------------------------------------------
    
    + Helped address an incomplete colour value in 'org-transclusion-block':
      <https://github.com/nobiot/org-transclusion/issues/41>.
    
    + Contributed to the formation of the zebra striping of 'embark':
      <https://github.com/oantolin/embark/commit/bb4ae2a666ab1f4a307edd71f77bcbb90fb25cef>.
    
    + Reviewed the faces of 'goggles':
      <https://github.com/minad/goggles/commit/d6e584a2c9487d3df4aee818c43485e437cb87ef>.
    
    + Helped raise awareness about refactoring 'org-tree-slide-header-overlay-face':
      <https://github.com/takaxp/org-tree-slide/issues/38>.
    
    + Reported an issue for Moody that would affect the subset of Emacs 28
      users who enable the new 'mode-line-compact' option:
      <https://github.com/tarsius/moody/issues/28>.
    
    + Did the same for Keycast: <https://github.com/tarsius/keycast/issues/13>.
    
    + Defined the new 'perl-non-scalar-variable' in upstream Emacs:
      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=45840>.
    
    Miscellaneous
    -------------
    
    + Created a new palette subset for "graph" colours, as none of the
      existing paradigms would suffice for cases where faithfulness to
      colour huenesss is important.  Those are currently used by
      'modus-themes-org-habit'.
    
    + Ensured that theme functions which need to produce an error message do
      so by calling 'error' instead of 'user-error'.
    
    + Added a 'modus-themes-load-themes' function that users can add to
      their init files.
    
    + Expanded the project's git repo README file with a sample
      'use-package' configuration.
    
    + The previous two points followed from an inquiry into the subtleties
      between 'enable-theme' and 'load-theme'.  Those are now documented at
      length in the manual.
    
    + Added screenshots to the web page that holds the official manual.
      Thanks to Damien Cassou for the feedback:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/147>.
    
    + Swapped the values of 'cyan-faint' and 'cyan-alt-faint' for Modus
      Vivendi.
    
    + Tweaked 'font-lock-doc-face' and 'font-lock-type-face' variations when
      "faint syntax" is in effect: (setq modus-themes-syntax 'faint).
    
    + Refined 'font-lock-doc-face' for when modus-themes-syntax is given a
      value of either 'yellow-comments-green-strings' or 'green-strings'.
      The changes are minor when treated in isolation, though they have
      helped improve the overall consistency of the end result: the gestalt.
    
    + Reviewed select "faint" colours for both Modus Operandi and Modus
      Vivendi.  The technicalities are discussed in a complete report:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2021-01-11-modus-themes-review-select-faint-colours/>.
    
    + Ensured that (setq modus-themes-syntax 'alt-syntax) and its "yellow
      comments" variant are more truthful to their intended style, by
      eliminating any exaggerations in the use of colour.
    
    + Adjusted the saturation of the green-alt value of Modus Vivendi.
    
    + Updated the manual to reflect all of the aforementioned.
    
    Thanks once again to everyone who contributed patches or reported an
    issue.  This has been yet another period of intense work; work which
    helps solidify the Modus themes as (i) uncompromisingly accessible in
    accordance with the highest legibility standard, (ii) highly
    customisable in true Emacs fashion, (iii) thoroughly comprehensive in
    terms of face coverage, and (iv) meticulously designed throughout.
    
  • 1.0.2
    ab0f5583 · Update to version 1.0.2 ·
    Modus themes version 1.0.2
    
    Minor tweaks to the manual to ensure that the right instructions are
    provided for those who install the themes manually or will be using the
    version that is shipped with Emacs.
    
    For all the rest, please refer to the release notes for version 1.0.0:
    <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-12-05-modus-themes-1-0-0/>.
  • 1.0.0
    Modus themes version 1.0.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-12-05
    
    This entry documents the changes since version 0.13.0 (2020-10-08).
    They constitute a major release with backward-incompatible additions
    which are described below.
    
    As always, every colour-related modification documented herein conforms
    with the overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum
    contrast ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their
    given combination (conformance with the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    Expect to find examples of basic and advanced customisations in the
    comprehensive Info manual bundled with the themes, which is also
    available at: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.
    
    Overview of major changes
    =========================
    
    0. The option that was present in earlier releases to override the
       colour palette has been removed.  It cannot work with byte
       compilation.  We must not compromise on performance, especially in
       light of the fairly high line count of the themes (broad face
       coverage combined with a multitude of customisation options).
    
    1. The code base has been refactored.  The two themes, Modus Operandi
       (light) and Modus Vivendi (dark), derive from the same source.
    
    2. The refactoring makes it possible to distribute the two themes as
       part of a single package.  You can find 'modus-themes' on MELPA, with
       other archives and core Emacs following suit soon thereafter (the
       Modus themes are built into Emacs since their version 0.12.0).
    
    3. The 'modus-operandi-theme' and 'modus-vivendi-theme' packages in
       MELPA and GNU ELPA are obsolete.  MELPA has already deleted them and
       now only provides 'modus-themes', while GNU ELPA shall do so soon
       enough.
    
       + Package providers of GNU/Linux distros, or other archives, are
         encouraged to update their sources so that they only deliver a
         single package that covers both themes.
    
    4. To avoid surprises, the refactored code is in the 'main' branch which
       becomes the default henceforth.  The 'master' branch, from where all
       prior releases were built, is thus deprecated.  Existing installs of
       'modus-operandi-theme' and/or 'modus-vivendi-theme' must manually
       switch to the new package sources, which offer a certain guarantee
       that they are informed of the breaking changes documented herein.
    
       + Users of 'straight.el' must make sure that they pull from the
         'main' branch.  This may also be the case for other such tools,
         though I have not had the time to test them all.
    
    5. The refactoring introduces a unified customisation framework.  Now
       all user-facing variables are named 'modus-themes-*' instead of
       'modus-operandi-*' and 'modus-vivendi-*'.  Users of both items can
       thus cut down on duplicate code or inelegant workarounds on their
       end.  Example:
    
           modus-operandi-bold-constructs
              |   |   |   |   |   |   |   ====> modus-themes-bold-constructs
           modus-vivendi-bold-constructs
    
    6. The themes now provide common user-facing functions.
    
       + 'modus-themes-load-operandi' and 'modus-themes-load-vivendi' can be
         used in Lisp to load the theme they name, while disabling their
         counterpart and running 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook'.  The
         hook can be used to override or further customise faces (examples
         are furnished in the manual).
    
       + 'modus-themes-toggle' interactively switches between Modus Operandi
         and Modus Vivendi or opens a minibuffer prompt to select between
         the two if none of them is active.  It ultimately calls the
         aforementioned functions to load the themes, so it also triggers
         the hook.  Bind this command to a key of your convenience (the
         author uses F5).
    
       + 'modus-themes-color' returns the colour value of a symbol in the
         alists that hold the themes' palettes.  The alists are
         'modus-themes-colors-operandi' and 'modus-themes-colors-vivendi'.
         'modus-themes-color' always operates on the active theme, making it
         suitable for post-theme-load customisations (via the hook we
         covered earlier).  Its usage is documented in the manual and is
         meant to be employed by those who are prepared to assume
         responsibility for face-related changes they introduce on their
         setup.
    
       + 'modus-themes-color-alts' occupies the same niche as the one right
         above, with the exception that it takes two arguments.  The first
         is the alist key to be used by 'modus-operandi' and the second is
         for 'modus-vivendi'.
    
       + 'modus-themes-wcag-formula' implements the WCAG formula to measure
         a colour value's relative luminance.  While 'modus-themes-contrast'
         applies the formula to derive the contrast ratio between two colour
         values in hexadecimal RGB notation.  This can be used to verify the
         accessibility of colour combinations provided by the themes or new
         ones defined at the user level (the Modus themes conform with the
         WCAG AAA standard which means that this kind of contrast is 7:1 or
         higher for all applicable background+foreground combinations).
    
    Customisation options
    =====================
    
    This is the complete list with all the customisation options:
    
        modus-themes-slanted-constructs             (boolean)
        modus-themes-bold-constructs                (boolean)
        modus-themes-variable-pitch-headings        (boolean)
        modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts                 (boolean)
        modus-themes-headings                       (alist)
        modus-themes-scale-headings                 (boolean)
        modus-themes-fringes                        (choice)
        modus-themes-org-blocks                     (choice)
        modus-themes-prompts                        (choice)
        modus-themes-mode-line                      (choice)
        modus-themes-diffs                          (choice)
        modus-themes-syntax                         (choice)
        modus-themes-intense-hl-line                (boolean)
        modus-themes-paren-match                    (choice)
        modus-themes-region                         (choice)
        modus-themes-links                          (choice)
        modus-themes-completions                    (choice)
    
    Plus those which are contingent on 'modus-themes-scale-headings':
    
        modus-themes-scale-1
        modus-themes-scale-2
        modus-themes-scale-3
        modus-themes-scale-4
        modus-themes-scale-5
    
    Consult the manual for each of them and please verify that none of the
    older options remains in your init file.
    
    Customisation options that did not exist in earlier versions
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    
    New entries and their possible values:
    
    1. modus-themes-syntax
    
       * nil (default)
       * faint
       * yellow-comments
       * green-strings
       * yellow-comments-green-strings
       * alt-syntax
       * alt-syntax-yellow-comments
    
       (supersedes options for "faint syntax" and "comments")
    
    2. modus-themes-links
    
       * nil (default)
       * faint
       * neutral-underline
       * faint-neutral-underline
       * no-underline
    
       (supersedes options for "no underlines")
    
    3. modus-themes-paren-match
    
       * nil (default)
       * intense
       * subtle-bold
       * intense-bold
    
       (supersedes options for "intense paren match")
    
    4. modus-themes-region
    
       * nil (default)
       * no-extend
       * bg-only
       * bg-only-no-extend
    
    Furthermore, the 'modus-themes-diff' has a new option to choose from:
    the symbol 'bg-only'.  It applies colour-coded backgrounds but does not
    override any syntax highlighting that may be present.  This makes it
    suitable for use with a non-nil value for diff-font-lock-syntax (which
    is the default for diff-mode buffers in Emacs 27 or higher).
    
    Support for new faces or face groups
    ====================================
    
    + consult
    + macrostep
    + make-mode
    + pdf-tools
    + popup
    + shr
    + sieve-mode
    
    (remember that the list of supported packages is already comprehensive)
    
    Thanks to:
    
    + Adam Spiers for bringing 'macrostep' to my attention.
    
    + Madhavan Krishnan for submitting the code for pdf-tools:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/14>.
    
    + Manuel Uberti for reporting the issue with popup.el:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/107>.
    
    + Again thanks to Manuel for consult:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/123>.  And to
      Daniel Mendler, its developer, for communicating with us on the status
      of the project.
    
    + Togan Muftuoglu for reporting the issue with sieve-mode:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/121>.
    
    Refinements to existing faces
    =============================
    
    + The diary and holiday marks in 'M-x calendar' are displayed using a
      slightly tinted background in order to improve their contrast.
      Holidays are also rendered in a bold font.  Thanks to Nicolas De
      Jaeghere for reporting the issue and following it up with valuable
      feedback: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/127>.
    
    + Code blocks in 'markdown-mode' now have a subtle background that
      extends to the edge of the window.  Thanks to Roman Rudakov for the
      suggestion and Hörmetjan Yiltiz for further testing:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/115>.
    
    + Inline code in 'markdown-mode' has a subtle background that covers the
      length of the construct.  Refer to issue #115 as above.
    
    + Ivy's main pattern-matching faces are slightly adjusted to work more
      effectively when users opt for "modus-themes-completions 'moderate" or
      "modus-themes-completions 'opinionated".
    
    + Swiper's 'swiper-isearch' command defaults to a more colourful
      presentation that clearly disambiguates matching pattern groups
      between themselves as well as their own active and inactive states.
      Thanks to John Haman for reporting the problem:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/125>.
    
    + Swiper's remaining faces are tweaked to better convey the intent of
      this tool.
    
    + The border of 'ivy-posframe' is more noticeable.  Thanks to Pete
      Kazmier: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/126>.
    
    + The 'fringe' face no longer returns a nil background, which allows
      'dap-ui-controls-mode' to display things properly.  Thanks to Simon
      Pugnet: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/106>.
    
    + Tags and priority cookies in Org mode no longer have a box property.
      This is because of changes in upstream Org that we helped solve and
      that are covered in the previous CHANGELOG entry (in short: Org
      heading constructs inherit the underlying heading's properties that
      are not part of their own specs, while they retain those that are
      explicitly defined for them---adaptive headings).  Properly solves the
      following issues:
    
      * <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/104>.  Thanks
        to user "bepolymathe".
    
      * <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/95>.  Thanks
        to Roman Rudakov.
    
    + The faces of 'M-x re-builder' are less intrusive.
    
    + All the following now inherit from basic font-lock faces and thus
      benefit from options such as 'modus-themes-syntax':
    
      * geiser
      * nxml-mode
      * tuareg
      * web-mode
      * xah-elisp-mode
    
    + Diff headers have a subtle grey background that extends to the edge of
      the window.
    
    + The faces of log-view and change-log use colour combinations that
      better differentiate the various objects on display.
    
    + 'font-lock-type-face' uses a cyan hue instead of magenta.
    
    + 'magit-header-line-key' uses a blue foreground colour instead of red.
    
    + Doc strings in code syntax are rendered in a new dedicated colour.
      The change is fairly subtle and should practically go unnoticed.
    
    + 'org-date' now respects the 'modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts' option.
      Thanks to user "fleimgruber" for reporting the issue:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/124>.
    
    + 'org-property-value' uses a slightly different shade of cyan.
    
    + 'dim-autoload' will always look like a regular comment.
    
    + The 'italic' face is inhereted by all relevant faces instead of
      hard-wiring a slant property.  This offers the potential advantage of
      specifying a distinct family (or other properties) for constructs that
      are meant to be rendered in italics (the manual has an example in its
      DIY sections for this scenario though it uses the 'bold' face---just
      apply the same idea to the 'italic' face).
    
    + 'dictionary-reference-face' inherits from 'button' (as with all
      links).
    
    + Several comment-related faces beyond the basic ones work with
      'modus-themes-syntax' when that has an effect on the colour of
      comments.  The faces are:
    
      * git-commit-comment-file
      * git-commit-comment-heading
      * git-rebase-comment-hash
      * git-rebase-comment-heading
    
    + 'transient-value' is more noticeable and fits better in its context.
    
    + All remaining Org metadata-related faces are refined for consistency
      between them in an attempt to make them unobtrusive.  More subtle
      colouration is applied.  Affected faces:
    
      * org-drawer
      * org-property-value
      * org-special-keyword
    
    Theme-related contributions to the wider community
    ==================================================
    
    + Defined the 'log-view-commit-body' for Emacs 28.1:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2020-11/msg00303.html>
      and
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2020-11/msg02196.html>.
    
    + Specified the version of the 'diff-error' face for Emacs 28.1:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2020-11/msg01328.html>.
    
    + Added the 'org-dispatcher-highlight' face to upstream Org:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-10/msg00158.html>.
    
      * Report with screenshots:
        <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-10-24-org-export-dispatcher-face/>.
    
    + Helped fix face of Flymake's unknown backend in inactive modelines:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2020-11/msg01119.html>.
    
    + Solved bug#44198 about a user not knowning the themes are in Emacs:
      <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2020-10/msg02001.html>.
    
    Miscellaneous
    =============
    
    + The new default 'main' branch of the Modus themes' git repo is an idea
      that was presented by user "Emacs Contrib" in issue 112:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/112>.  Raising
      awareness about the negative impact of potentially, tacitly, or
      explicitly offensive language is a goal worth pursuing.  Plus "main"
      is a more appropriate name for the primary branch of a project and we
      do not lose anything by introducing this change as part of version
      1.0.0, which anyhow requires manual interventions in user
      configurations.
    
    + Thanks to Manuel Uberti, Jeremy Friesen, and Gitlab user "Eugene" for
      their feedback during the process that eventually led to the
      development of the 'modus-themes-syntax' customisation option:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/105>.
    
    + Thanks to André Alexandre Gomes for the feedback in issue 111, which
      led to the simplification of the manual's references to Guix:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/111>.
    
    + Thanks to Nicolas De Jaeghere for noting that BBDB is indirectly
      supported: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/128>.
    
    Between the refactoring of the code base and all other changes, this has
    been yet another period of hard work to deliver on the promise of themes
    that are (i) highly accessible and (ii) comprehensive in both their face
    coverage and customisation options, while always conforming with the
    highest accessibility standard for legible text.
    
    Special thanks to the MELPA maintainers for all their contributions.
    MELPA is an integral part of the wider Emacs community.  Thanks, in
    particular, to Chris Rayner who has reviewed all my pull requests
    hitherto, and to Jonas Bernoulli for checking the latest one (and its
    concomitant issue) that introduced the new 'modus-themes' package.
    
    Thank you, the reader, for your attention and for understanding the
    longer term benefits of the refactoring, despite the short term friction
    it may have introduced.
    
  • 0.13.0
    a5832c93 · Update to version 0.13.0 ·
    Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.13.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-10-08
    
    This entry documents the changes since version 0.12.0 (2020-08-26).
    There have been around 150 commits in the meantime, making this the
    largest release to date (though sheer volume should not be conflated
    with quality, of which there is plenty).
    
    As always, everything described herein conforms with the overarching
    accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum contrast ratio of
    7:1 between background and foreground values in their given combinations
    (conformance with the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    Overview
    ========
    
    1. There is a new Info manual that documents the customisation options
       as well as every other piece of information pertinent to the themes.
       You will find it in the Info pages inside of Emacs.  Or browse it
       online: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes>.
    
    2. New customisation options grant users more power to further adapt the
       active theme to their preferences.
    
    3. Extended coverage for even more faces and face groups, adding to the
       already comprehensive list of directly supported ones.
    
    4. Lots of tweaks to improve the use of colour and avoid exaggerations
       (well, "exaggerations" is relative, since the prior state was already
       carefully designed).
    
    5. A new page hosts all pictures that demo the themes across a wide
       range of scenaria: <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes-pictures>.
    
    6. Similarly, the change log also has its own dedicated web page:
       <https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes-changelog>.
    
    New customisation options
    =========================
    
    Note that all customisation options are documented at length in the new
    Info manual.  What is offered here is not necessarily exhaustive.
    
    Diff styles
    -----------
    
    Symbol names ("choice" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-diffs
    + modus-vivendi-theme-diffs
    
    Possible values:
    
    1. nil (default)
    2. desaturated
    2. fg-only
    
    DEPRECATED ("boolean" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-subtle-diffs
    + modus-vivendi-theme-subtle-diffs
    
    This option supersedes older ones while retaining their functionality.
    
    The default remains unaltered, meaning that the diffs will use fairly
    prominent colour-coded combinations for the various elements (e.g. green
    text on an unambiguously green backdrop).
    
    A 'desatured' value will tone down the default aesthetic, giving a less
    vibrant feel.
    
    While 'fg-only' removes almost all coloured backgrounds, opting to apply
    colour only to the relevant text (this was the case with the
    now-deprecated options).  There are some exceptions, like word-wise or
    "refined" diffs, which still use coloured backgrounds to convey their
    meaning.
    
    Modeline styles
    ---------------
    
    Symbol names ("choice" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-mode-line
    + modus-vivendi-theme-mode-line
    
    Possible values:
    
    1. nil (default)
    2. 3d
    3. moody
    
    DEPRECATED ("boolean" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-3d-modeline
    + modus-vivendi-theme-3d-modeline
    
    The default modeline continues to be a two-dimensional rectangle with a
    border around it.  Active and inactive modelines use different colour
    combinations for their main background and foreground.
    
    Option '3d' produces an effect similar to what you get in a generic
    Emacs session, where the active modeline has a pseudo three-dimensional
    effect applied to it.  This option offers the same functionality as that
    of the deprecated variables.
    
    Option 'moody' is designed specifically for use with the Moody library,
    though it can also be used without it.  Instead of implementing a box
    effect, it applies an overline and underline instead, while also toning
    down the inactive modeline.
    
    Thanks to Nicolas De Jaeghere for the feedback and code samples in issue
    80: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/80>
    
    Headline styles
    ---------------
    
    Symbol names ("alist" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-headings
    + modus-vivendi-theme-headings
    
    DEPRECATED ("boolean" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-rainbow-headings
    + modus-operandi-theme-section-headings
    + modus-vivendi-theme-rainbow-headings
    + modus-vivendi-theme-section-headings
    
    Possible values, which can be specified for each heading level (examples
    further below):
    
    0.  nil (default fallback option---covers all heading levels)
    1.  t (default style for a single heading, when the fallback differs)
    2.  no-bold
    3.  line
    4.  line-no-bold
    5.  rainbow
    6.  rainbow-line
    7.  rainbow-line-no-bold
    8.  highlight
    9.  highlight-no-bold
    10. rainbow-highlight
    11. rainbow-highlight-no-bold
    12. section
    13. section-no-bold
    14. rainbow-section
    15. rainbow-section-no-bold
    
    This supersedes and greatly expands upon what the deprecated variables
    once offered.  It is now possible to (i) benefit from more stylistic
    choices, and (ii) apply them on a per-level basis.
    
    As always, the defaults remain in tact: headings are just rendered in a
    bold weight and their colours are not too saturated to offer a plain
    text impression that relies on typography to convey its meaning.
    
    The info manual explains the details.  A few examples:
    
        ;; Per-level styles (t means everything else)
        (setq modus-operandi-theme-headings
              '((1 . highlight)
                (2 . line)
                (t . rainbow-line-no-bold)))
    
        ;; Uniform style for all levels
        (setq modus-operandi-theme-headings
              '((t . rainbow-line-no-bold)))
    
        ;; Default style for level 1, while others differ
        (setq modus-operandi-theme-headings
              '((1 . t)
                (2 . line)
                (t . rainbow-line-no-bold)))
    
    Thanks to Adam Spiers for the feedback in issue 81:
    <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/81>.  Also thanks
    to Nicolas De Jaeghere for helping refine relevant stylistic choices:
    <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/90>.
    
    No link underlines
    ------------------
    
    Symbol names ("boolean" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-no-link-underline
    + modus-vivendi-theme-no-link-underline
    
    Possible values:
    
    1. nil (default)
    2. t
    
    By default, the themes apply an underline effect to links, symbolic
    links, and buttons.  Users can now disable this style by setting the new
    option to 't'.
    
    Thanks to Utkarsh Singh for the feedback in issue 94:
    <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/94>
    
    No mixed fonts
    --------------
    
    Symbol names ("boolean" type):
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-no-mixed-fonts
    + modus-vivendi-theme-no-mixed-fonts
    
    Possible values:
    
    1. nil (default)
    2. t
    
    By default, the themes configure some spacing-sensitive faces, such as
    Org tables and code blocks, to always inherit from the 'fixed-pitch'
    face (documented in the manual).  This is to ensure that those
    constructs remain monospaced when users opt for something like the
    built-in 'M-x variable-pitch-mode'.  Otherwise the layout would break.
    
    The obvious downside with this theme design is that users need to
    explicitly configure the font family of 'fixed-pitch' in order to apply
    their desired typeface (how to do this is also covered in the manual).
    That may be something they do not want to do.  Hence this option to
    disable any kind of font mixing done by the active theme.  Set it to
    't'.
    
    Support for new faces or face groups
    ====================================
    
    + awesome-tray
    + binder
    + cperl-mode
    + eldoc-highlight-function-argument
    + erc escaped colour sequences
    + eshell-syntax-highlighting
    + flycheck-color-mode-line
    + isearch regexp groups (Emacs version >= 28)
    + mpdel
    + objed
    + org 9.4 new faces: 'org-headline-todo' and 'org-table-header'
    + racket-mode
    + typescript-mode
    
    Thanks to:
    
    + Damien Cassou for reporting the issue with mpdel:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/99>
    
    + Dario Gjorgjevski for reporting the issue with erc:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/92>
    
    + Markus Beppler for contributing the patch for cperl-mode:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/11>
    
    + User "Moesasji" for reporting the issue with objed:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/79>
    
    Refinements to existing faces
    =============================
    
    + calfw applies colours and styles in a way that makes it consistent
      with the rest of the themes' metaphors.
    
    + diredfl makes more considerate use of colour.  We still apply colour
      everywhere (the whole point of this package) but make sure to avoid
      exaggerations.
    
    + doom-modeline-battery-error face fits better with the rest of the
      design.
    
    + elfeed search buffers use less intense colours, while still keeping
      all elements fairly distinct.  The intent is to avoid a "rainbow
      effect" in such a dense interface.
    
    + elfeed read and unread items are more distinct.
    
    + git commit and vc log edit messages benefit from refined colour
      combinations for their various constructs.  The commit's summary is
      now rendered in a bold weight, to better convey the idea that this is
      a quasi heading element.
    
    + gnus heading colours are more consistent.  All information remains
      clearly distinct, but we now avoid using colours that are on opposite
      sides of the colour spectrum.  Basically to keep things distinct
      without going over the top.
    
    + gnus read and unread items are easier to tell apart.  Thanks to user
      "Nick" for reporting the issue:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/97>.
    
    + help-argument-name has a distinct foreground colour, so that it is
      easier to spot it in "*Help*" buffers.  Its slant is also controlled
      by the active theme's customisation option for slanted constructs (nil
      by default---check the manual).
    
    + helpful-heading now is consistent with other heading styles.  Thanks
      to Nicolas De Jaeghere for reporting the issue:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/90>.
    
    + icomplete, ido, orderless are all tweaked to work better under various
      circumstances.
    
    + info-menu-star uses a red colour to make it easier to select a menu
      entry by estimating its number.  This face applies to every third
      element and is a nice little extra to have.
    
    + info quoted strings are configured to always render in 'fixed-pitch',
      in line with the themes' design for mixed fonts (remember to check the
      relevant customisation option).
    
    + line numbers work properly with 'text-scale-adjust'.  Thanks to user
      "jixiuf" for reporting the issue:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/98>.
    
    + line-number-current-line no longer applies a bold weight to its text.
      This is to avoid a certain "jump effect" while moving between lines,
      where the affected numbers grow and shrink in weight as the line
      changes (once you see it, you will know what I mean).
    
    + line-number-major-tick and line-number-minor-tick do use a bold weight
      because they are fixed on the scale.  Their colours are also improved
      to better complement their intended role (these faces are for Emacs 27
      or higher).
    
    + magit-diff-file-heading-selection, magit-diff-hunk-heading-selection
      use more appropriate colour combinations.
    
    + markdown blockquotes and org quote blocks use a different foreground,
      which is colder than the previous one.  Just to make sure that they
      are not mistaken for inline code.
    
    + message headers use less exaggerated colour combinations.  The
      differences are fairly minor.
    
    + message-mml no longer uses a green foreground, as that could
      potentially cause confusion with quoted text in some cases.  A unique,
      albeit less saturated, foreground is used instead.
    
    + message-separator uses a more neutral colour combination, while
      retaining its overall uniqueness within its context (i.e. mail
      composition).
    
    + modeline colours are refined to improve the contrast between active
      and inactive states.
    
    + mu4e-replied-face has a new colour that accounts for colour distance
      relative to its context.  Thanks to Shreyas Ragavan for reporting the
      issue: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/69>.
    
    + org agenda date and structure no longer behave like headings in other
      Org buffers.  Instead, they have their own styles to better perform
      their intended function and to avoid exaggerations.
    
    + org agenda dimmed to-do items (which have blocked sub-items) are no
      longer assigned a subtle grey background colour.  They are instead
      rendered with a bold weight and a subtle grey foreground to minimise
      distractions.  Thanks to Roman Rudakov for reporting this in issue
      101: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/101>.
    
    + org agenda clocked items are configured to extend their background to
      the edge of the window.  Otherwise they are cut off at the last text
      character, which creates inconsistencies while using tags: a tag is
      placed to the right so the background extends further than without
      them.  Based again on the feedback of Roman Rudakov in issue 101:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/101>.
    
    + org agenda current time no longer uses a background.  A bold weight
      and a blue foreground are applied instead.  The intent is to keep
      things clean.  This is also covered by Roman Rudakov's feedback in
      issue 101: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/101>.
    
    + org-checkbox-statistics-done, org-checkbox-statistics-todo inherit
      from org-done and org-todo respectively, instead of defining their own
      properties.
    
    + org drawers and their data now use 'fixed-pitch' in the interest of
      consistency with other metadata-like faces.  Thanks (yet again!) to
      Nicolas De Jaeghere for reporting the issue:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/91>.
    
    + org-footnote underlines will now always use the same colour, instead
      of applying the one of other coloured constructs (e.g. when the
      footnote is inline and part of the text is rendered as verbatim).
    
    + org-meta-line is less prominent and, thus, more consistent with other
      metadata-related constructs.
    
    + org-roam faces are updated to match the current state of the upstream
      project.  The main colour of org-roam links is now different than that
      of standard links in an attempt to differentiate between the two (due
      to their unique semantics).  If this is not desired, you can evaluate
      the following:
    
          (setq org-roam-link-use-custom-faces nil)
    
    + org-todo, org-done, as well as relevant faces such as priorities and
      statistics are reviewed to work better with all heading combinations.
      Though please read the next section about "adaptive headings", as such
      workarounds will no longer be necessary for future stable releases of
      Org.
    
    + selectrum uses different styles than before to account for its unique
      property of overlaying matching characters on top of the current
      line's background.  We want to avoid scenaria where matches are
      difficult to discern and the current line is not clear.
    
    + vc modeline states benefit from improved colour choices.  Just minor
      adjustments to account for the review of the base modeline colours.
    
    + vterm base colours now are variants of gray to ensure that some tools,
      such as zsh suggestions work properly.  Thanks to user "jixiuf" for
      reporting this issue and suggesting a possible solution:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/93>.
    
    Contributions to the wider community
    ====================================
    
    Sometimes the themes reveal bugs in other packages.  It is of paramount
    importance that we report those to the upstream developers, try to help
    them reproduce the issue, and, where possible, support them in tracing
    the problem's root cause.
    
    Four such cases during this release:
    
    1. Adaptive Org headings.  Solved upstream and documented on my website:
       <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-09-24-org-headings-adapt/>.
       Reported and discussed on the themes' issue tracker:
       <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/37>.
    
    2. Alignment of Org tags with proportional fonts.  Ongoing thread:
       <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-09/msg00415.html>.
       Reported and discussed on the themes' issue tracker:
       <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/85>.
    
    3. Org priority cookie has extra space.  Ongoing thread:
       <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-09/msg00696.html>.
       Reported and discussed on the themes' issue tracker, with feedback
       from Roman Rudakov:
       <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/95>.
    
    4. Company overlay pop-up misaligns items.  Reported upstream and
       acknowledged as a known issue that occurs in certain cases:
       <https://github.com/company-mode/company-mode/issues/1010>.
       Discussion on the themes' issue tracker, with feedback from Iris
       Garcia: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/96>.
    
    Miscellaneous
    =============
    
    + Belatedly (by about 2 weeks) pushed tag for version 0.12.0.  Thanks to
      Alex Griffin for bringing this to my attention:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/89>
    
    + Fixed a bug with how some older customisation options were declared as
      obsolete.  Thanks to Tassilo Horn for noticing and reporting the
      problem: <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/88>.
    
    + Fixed a misplaced optional prefix argument in the manual for how to
      switch themes using a custom function.  Thanks to Manuel Uberti for
      catching this omission of mine and reporting it:
      <https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/84>.
    
    + Silenced the Elisp package linter for a spurious error on a single
      eldoc face.  Thanks to Steve Purcell for the guidance:
      <https://github.com/purcell/package-lint/issues/187>.
    
    + Defined two new dedicated background colours for exceptional cases.
      These are intended for internal use in very special circumstances.
    
    + Reword GuixSD to "Guix System" in the list of package formats
      currently available.
    
    + Reviewed the main blue colours for both themes.  While the changes are
      practically impossible to discern upon first sight, the process was
      far from straightforward.  A complete report documents the minutia:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-09-14-modus-themes-review-blues/>.
    
    + Reviewed the "active" palette subset, typically used in the modelines.
      No report was necessary for those, as the changes were fairly simple.
    
    + Reviewed the "intense" background colour that comes into effect when
      users opt for the customisation option for intense paren-match styles
      (check the manual).  Both the hue and the saturation have been changed
      to better conform with the intended function of this particular entry.
    
    + Reviewed the fringe-specific accented backgrounds.  Commit 7316e3320
      contains tables that compare the relative luminance of old and new
      values.
    
    + Improved the advice for setting fonts using 'set-face-attribute'.  The
      information is in the manual and is also available as a blog entry:
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-09-05-emacs-note-mixed-font-heights/>.
    
    + Rewrote an expression as "(or x y)" instead of "(if x x y)" in one
      place.  Just goes to show that tweaking the code is also part of the
      deal.
    
    + Abstracted and simplified heading level properties by using bespoke
      theme faces.  Makes it easier to keep things consistent across the
      various face groups.
    
    + Same principle as above for diff-related styles.
    
    + Users who prefer to do things their own way or who just wish to
      contribute code to the Modus themes may wish to read my "Notes for
      aspiring Emacs theme developers":
      <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-08-28-notes-emacs-theme-devs/>.
    
    This has been yet another period of intense work: reviewing faces and
    applying colours is never easy, adding new customisation options is
    always tricky, and documenting everything takes a lot of time (unless
    you do all of those on a whimsy, which hopefully is not the case here).
    
    Thanks again to everyone who helped improve the themes!
    
  • 0.12.0
    67554a62 · Prepare version 0.12.0 ·
    Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.12.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-08-26
    
    This entry documents the set of changes since version 0.11.0
    (2020-07-31).  There have been around 70 commits in the meatime, though
    the sheer number may obfuscate the fact that a lot of work has gone into
    this release.
    
    As always, every change described here conforms with the accessibility
    objective of the themes for a minimum 7:1 contrast ratio between
    background and foreground values in their given combinations
    (conformance with the WCAG AAA standard).
    
    New customisation options
    =========================
    
    1 Completion Frameworks
    -----------------------
    
    The star of the show has to be the new option that refashions the
    aesthetics of completion UIs: Helm, Icomplete, Ido, Ivy, Sallet,
    Selectrum.  The 'modus-operandi-theme-completions' and
    'modus-vivendi-theme-completions' accept the following symbols:
    
    + nil (default)
    + moderate
    + opinionated
    
    Nil means that the overall presentation of the UI follows the patterns
    established by its own source code.  For example, Ivy uses four distinct
    background and foreground combinations of accented colours to highlight
    the matching groups.  A grey background is added to denote the implicit
    match between those groups.  So we choose to respect this metaphor,
    while applying colours that conform with the accessibility goal of our
    project.  Whereas Icomplete or Ido use subtle styles to present their
    results.  Again, we remain faithful to their presentation.
    
    With 'moderate', we apply nuanced background and foreground combinations
    of accented colour values.  This will slightly tone down Helm, Ivy,
    Sallet, Selectrum, while it will slightly adjust the looks of Icomplete
    and Ido.
    
    Whereas 'opinionated' has a more pronounced effect on the overall
    aesthetics of the UI.  For the likes of Icomplete and Ido which are
    subtle by default, this option will use intense combinations of
    background and foreground colours.  They are the diametric opposite of
    the nil value.  Whereas Helm, Ivy, Sallet, Selectrum, will use even more
    subtle colours.  Again, they are farther away than their default looks.
    
    These new options supersede the now-deprecated and more limited in scope
    variables of prior releases:
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-intense-standard-completions
    + modus-vivendi-theme-intense-standard-completions
    
    Thanks to the following people for their valuable feedback in issue 75:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/75
    
    + Anders Johansson
    + Manuel Uberti
    + Shreyas Ragavan
    
    2 Prompts
    ---------
    
    The 'modus-operandi-theme-prompts' and modus-vivendi-theme-prompts' will
    change the overall looks of minibuffer and shell prompts ('M-x shell' as
    well as 'M-x eshell').  Their possible values are:
    
    + nil (default)
    + subtle
    + intense
    
    Nil will only use a coloured foreground for the prompts' text.  Simple
    and effective.
    
    With 'subtle', the default foreground value is retained but is now
    complemented by an appropriately tinted background.  The effect is more
    noticeable than the default, though not by much.
    
    While 'intense' applies a coloured background and foreground combination
    that should clearly stand out from the rest of the context.
    
    Thanks to Manuel Uberti for sharing feedback in issue 74:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/74
    
    3 Fringe visibility
    -------------------
    
    A new pair of symbols supersedes older variables:
    
    + modus-operandi-theme-visible-fringes ==> modus-operandi-theme-fringes
    + modus-vivendi-theme-visible-fringes  ==> modus-vivendi-theme-fringes
    
    While the deprecated options were booleans, the current ones offer a
    choice between the following:
    
    + nil (default)
    + subtle
    + intense
    
    Nil means that the fringes have no distinct background of their own.
    They still exist per the settings of 'fringe-mode', but can only be
    discerned by tracking the negative space between the frame's or window's
    edge and the buffer's effective boundaries.
    
    The 'subtle' value will apply a greyscale background that is fairly
    close to the default main background (pure white/black).  The fringes
    are now visible.
    
    As its name implies, 'intense' has a more pronounced effect than the
    other values.  It also uses a greyscale background.
    
    Review of already supported faces and colours
    =============================================
    
    1 Magit blame styles
    --------------------
    
    The headers that Magit's blame interface produces were difficult to tell
    apart from their context.  A set of carefully selected colours now makes
    sure that they are always distinct.  Some subtle background values are
    used, in addition to other typographic elements.
    
    Thanks to Damien Cassou for reporting this problem and for providing
    valuable feedback that informed the final design.  Refer to issue 71:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/71
    
    2 Paren match colours
    ---------------------
    
    The face that highlights the matching delimiter when 'show-paren-mode'
    (or equivalent) is enabled uses two dedicated colours, whose names are:
    'bg-paren-match' and 'bg-paren-match-intense'.  Those have been reviewed
    to make them more obvious in various contexts and to improve their
    overall consistency.
    
    A report with relative contrast ratios is available on my website:
    https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-08-09-modus-themes-paren-match/
    
    I benefited from valuable feedback from Shreyas Ragavan in issue 70:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/70
    
    3 Mu4e faces
    ------------
    
    Some faces were tweaked to make it easier to distinguish replied,
    forwarded, and draft messages from other headers.  The changes are
    fairly small in scope, but the effect should be that of an overall
    improvement.
    
    Thanks to Shreyas Ragavan for noticing these inconsistencies and for
    their continued participation in addressing them.  See issue 69:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/69
    
    4 Notmuch message headings
    --------------------------
    
    A couple of inconsistencies with how notmuch would style email addresses
    and folded messages were addressed.  The generic 'italic' face was also
    tweaked in the process, removing the foreground it would falsely define.
    
    Thanks to Damien Cassou for bringing these to my attention in issue 72:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/72
    
    5 hl-todo
    ---------
    
    Let the special keywords of 'hl-todo-mode' use an optional slant, just
    like code comments do.  This is to ensure that they feel part of their
    context.
    
    6 Magit general interface
    -------------------------
    
    Several faces were reviewed in the interest of colour harmony and to
    address potential inconsistencies or exaggerations.  The most noticeable
    change pertains to the log views, as we now use fewer accent values,
    reducing whatever unnecessary "rainbow effect" may have existed.
    
    7 VC commit logs
    ----------------
    
    The presentation of 'vc-print-log' and 'vc-print-root-log' has been
    reviewed to reduce the stark contrast between the colours it once used.
    While the elements remain distinct, the differences between them are
    more subtle, which is preferable when viewing long lists of
    similar-looking patterns.
    
    8 Powerline
    -----------
    
    The active and inactive minibuffers now use appropriate accented
    backgrounds or foregrounds for some of their elements.  This makes them
    better for their intended function.
    
    Thanks to Shreyas Ragavan and tycho garen for their feedback in issue
    73, which was actually about adding support for Spaceline.  It uses
    Powerline as its dependency, so we eventually had to accommodate both of
    them: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/73
    
    Shreyas also helped by adding a short note in the README which informs
    users of those two packages on how to tweak things when conducting tests
    or changing themes.  See merge requests 9 and 10:
    
    + https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/9
    + https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/10
    
    9 Latex sectioning
    ------------------
    
    The themes will no longer affect the height of the Latex sectioning
    faces.  This is because there already exists a variable that scales them
    accordingly.
    
    Thanks to Anders Johansson for providing insights in issue 77:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/77
    
    10 Transient pop-up menu
    ------------------------
    
    Extended support for its new colour-coded faces that follow in the
    footsteps of the 'hydra' package for visual semantics.
    
    11 Miscellaneous
    ----------------
    
    The following faces were refined:
    
    + 'org-formula' inherits from 'fixed-pitch' to ensure that it does not
      break table layouts when the user opts for a mixed-font setup (such as
      with 'M-x variable-pitch-mode').
    
    + 'bongo-elapsed-track-part' uses a more appropriate accented
      background.
    
    + 'symbol-overlay-default-face' is less intense than before.  This is in
      response to feedback I received from Manuel Uberti as an aside in
      issue 75: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/75
    
    + 'rectangle-preview' uses a slightly accented background, which
      distinguishes it from the highlighted region.  This is to denote a
      different state where the user is typing in some text.
    
    + 'diff-hl-change' now uses the more appropriate yellow colour instead
      of blue.  Yellow denotes "mixed changes" and, therefore, stands
      between "removed" (red) and "added" (green).  As it so happens, yellow
      is a colour that derives by mixing red with green.
    
    New packages
    ============
    
    The following are now explicitly supported by the themes:
    
    + org-table-sticky-header
    + pkgbuild-mode
    + semantic
    + spaceline
    
    More faces or face groups that are defined:
    
    + git-rebase (magit)
    + doom-modeline-debug-visual
    + file-name-shadow
    + the faces used by Emacs 27's 'display-line-numbers-major-tick' and
      'display-line-numbers-minor-tick'
    + table-cell
    
    Final notes
    ===========
    
    There now exists an HTML version of the README, which will hopefully
    make things easier for users: https://protesilaos.com/modus-themes/
    
    Other changes are not user-facing.  For example, using 'pcase' instead
    of 'cond' to make relevant expressions more succinct.  Or defining a
    coloured underline in a more straightforward way.  No need to document
    them at length.
    
    While this release introduces customisation options, it feels as though
    the themes are approaching a stable state.  We know what works, we have
    a comprehensive colour palette that can meet our evolving needs, and we
    have already achieved broad package/face coverage.  All while conforming
    with the overarching objective of this project for a minimum 7:1
    contrast ratio between background and foreground values in any given
    combination we specify.
    
    I wish to thank everyone who has helped me by testing things and sharing
    their thoughts.  The people already mentioned herein:
    
    - Anders Johansson (https://gitlab.com/andersjohansson)
    - Damien Cassou (https://gitlab.com/DamienCassou)
    - Manuel Uberti (https://gitlab.com/muberti)
    - Shreyas Ragavan (https://gitlab.com/shrysr)
    - tycho garen (https://gitlab.com/tychoish)
    
  • 0.11.0
    c376b080 · Prepare version 0.11.0 ·
    Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.11.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-07-31
    
    This entry records the changes since version 0.10.0 (2020-06-24).  The
    present release covers close to 100 commits, some of which introduce
    far-reaching changes.  It is not just the quantity that matters.
    Sometimes even a minor tweak requires lots of testing and forethought.
    This release represents another month of intense work and attention to
    detail.
    
    Palette review of "nuanced" colours
    ===================================
    
    The themes contain a subset of palette variables that have a two-fold
    utility:
    
    1. Provide a subtle coloured background that can be combined with all
       foreground colours that are intended for text/code highlighting.
    
    2. Produce variegated text in cases where complementary information
       needs to be displayed alongside some more prominent construct
       (e.g. Org table formulas).
    
    In early July 2020, these colours went through a comprehensive review to
    improve their intended use.  The complete report is available on my
    website:
    <https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-07-08-modus-themes-nuanced-colours/>
    
    This formed the preparatory work that enabled several of the changes
    documented herein, most noticeable among which is the "Org blocks"
    customisation option.
    
    Customisation options
    =====================
    
    Org blocks
    ----------
    
    1. The symbols 'modus-operandi-theme-distinct-org-blocks' and
       'modus-vivendi-theme-distinct-org-blocks' are DEPRECATED.  They are
       now REPLACED by the general-purpose 'modus-operandi-theme-org-blocks'
       and 'modus-vivendi-theme-org-blocks' respectively.
    
    2. The aforementioned new symbols allow users to configure different
       styles for Org blocks.
    
       + Option 'greyscale' (which you must quote like this: 'greyscale)
         will apply a subtle grey background to the contents of the block,
         while it will extend its beginning and end lines to ensure that the
         area is distinct from the rest of the buffer.  This is the style
         you would normally get with the old customisation options.
    
       + Option 'rainbow' (again, must be quoted) will instead apply a
         colour-coded subtle background in the main area of the block.  The
         exact colour depends on the programming language being used.  You
         would need to check the source code for how these are currently
         mapped (search for "org-src-block-faces").  The basic idea is to
         have different colours that make it easier for mixing the
         input/output of multiple programming languages.  Users who engage
         in literate programming may find this particularly useful.  Because
         the block is already quite apparent, the beginning and end lines
         are not extended to the edge of the window, to avoid exaggerations
         that could create distractions.
    
    Variable pitch headings (proportionately-spaced headings)
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    
    The symbols 'modus-operandi-theme-proportional-fonts' and
    'modus-vivendi-theme-proportional-fonts' are DEPRECATED.  They are now
    REPLACED by the more appropriately-named
    'modus-operandi-theme-variable-pitch-headings' and
    'modus-vivendi-theme-variable-pitch-headings' respectively.
    
    The intended effect is exactly the same as before, namely, to let
    headings in Org and relevant modes use a proportionately-spaced font
    regardless of what the default is (typically a monospaced typeface).
    
    Remember that to configure the exact font family for the generic
    'variable-pitch' face, you can use something like this:
    
        (set-face-attribute 'variable-pitch nil :family "FiraGO")
    
    Check the README for further details on setting and mixing fonts.
    
    Faint syntax for programming
    ----------------------------
    
    Users can now enable 'modus-operandi-theme-faint-syntax' or
    'modus-vivendi-theme-faint-syntax'.  The intended effect is to tone down
    all syntax highlighting in programming modes, while always respecting
    the overarching objective of these themes for a minimum contrast ratio
    of 7:1 (highest accessibility standard for colour contrast---WCAG AAA).
    
    The default is to use more saturated colours.
    
    Intense hl-line
    ---------------
    
    Toggling on 'modus-operandi-theme-intense-hl-line' or
    'modus-vivendi-theme-intense-hl-line' will apply a more pronounced grey
    to the background of faces that highlight the current line.  This
    affects tools such as the built-in 'hl-line-mode', which is in turn
    enabled automatically by lots of other packages, like 'elfeed' and
    'mu4e'.
    
    The default is to use a subtle grey.
    
    Intense paren-match
    -------------------
    
    Same principle as above.  'modus-operandi-theme-intense-paren-match' and
    'modus-vivendi-theme-intense-paren-match' will make the matching
    parentheses more intense than the default subtle warm background.  This
    concerns modes such as that of the 'smartparens' package as well as the
    built-in 'show-paren-mode'.
    
    Refactored the use of bold
    ==========================
    
    A major review of the themes now makes it possible to specify the exact
    weight of what a "bold" typeface is.  This is only meaningful for cases
    where a font family has variants such as "semibold".
    
    Evaluate this, replacing "semibold" with the one your typeface supports:
    
        (set-face-attribute 'bold nil :weight 'semibold)
    
    The default is to use a standard bold weight.
    
    Packages and face groups
    ========================
    
    Refine already-supported faces
    ------------------------------
    
    + The following packages now use more appropriate colour combinations:
    
      - diary
      - annotate
      - transient (magit pop-up menu, though also used elsewhere)
      - fountain
      - calendar
      - mu4e
      - markdown-mode
      - outline-minor-faces
    
    + Other changes:
    
      - org-agenda has undergone a thoroughgoing review to improve the
        semantics of colour for scheduled tasks, deadlines, modeline
        filters, current date etc.
    
      - org and outline-mode headings have been refined to look better with
        the "rainbow headings" option that was introduced in an earlier
        release (check the README).
    
      - org-quote now works properly with the "Org blocks" option mentioned
        above.
    
      - org-checkbox-statistics uses the same foreground colour as org-todo,
        for the sake of consistency.
    
      - org-date now always inherits from 'fixed-pitch', to ensure proper
        alignment of elements when a mixed fonts setup is used (tools for
        achieving this effect are documented at length in the README).  The
        relevant patch was contributed by Matthew Stevenson.
    
      - org-meta-line no longer looks like a comment, which helps denote its
        special utility (e.g. when evaluating a table's formula).
    
      - org-warning now uses a variant of red for its text, which works
        better in the contexts this face is used (e.g. the agenda or the
        export dispatcher).
    
      - We now apply a slightly more accented colour combination for
        'secondary-selection', which is chiefly used by Org and Calendar in
        various contexts.
    
      - Gnus group level faces make more considerate use of colour to better
        denote their significance.
    
      - Cited text in message buffers has a better sequence of colours.
    
      - Two new Helm faces are supported.
    
      - Let 'keycast' use a different border colour when the "3D modeline"
        option is enabled (refer to the README for that option).
    
      - Extend 'hl-todo-keyword-faces' with the "bug" keyword.
    
      - More intense colour for 'diff-hl-reverted-hunk-highlight'.
    
      - Tone down the focused modeline's border colour.
    
      - Define new bespoke faces that the themes use internally.
    
      - Use more appropriate colours for 'header-line-highlight'.
    
      - Apply greyscale line highlight for flycheck current line in the
        diagnostics buffer, instead of the warmer colour combination it had
        before.
    
      - Tweak text colour difference between MU4E read and unread messages.
    
    Added support for new packages
    ------------------------------
    
    + bongo
    + boon
    + dictionary
    + eshell-fringe-status
    + eshell-git-prompt
    + eshell-prompt-extras
    + highlight-tail
    + hl-defined
    + notmuch
    + tty-menu
    
    Miscellaneous
    =============
    
    + Expand the README with new documentation and clarify parts of the
      existing one.
    
    + Update the Wiki page with screenshots and their descriptions (this in
      itself is a day's worth of work):
      https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/wikis/Screenshots
    
    + Make the source code of each theme work better with the built-in
      'outline-minor-mode'.  Check my video if you need a demo on how I use
      this in tandem with 'imenu':
      https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-07-20-emacs-outline-imenu/
    
    Thanks to, in no particular order:
    
    + Shreyas Ragavan (https://gitlab.com/shrysr) for introducing me to the
      idea that derived the "rainbow" Org blocks and for providing valuable
      feedback in several issues.
    
    + Matthew Stevenson (https://gitlab.com/matth0204) for contributing the
      aforementioned patch for the 'org-date' face.
    
    + Manuel Uberti (https://gitlab.com/muberti) for offering valuable
      feedback in a number of issues (and special thanks for doing this for
      several months now).
    
    + Dinko (https://gitlab.com/dinkonin) for noticing a not-so-obvious bug
      in the initial implementation of the "rainbow Org blocks" option.
    
    + okamsn (https://gitlab.com/okamsn) for providing the necessary
      feedback that allowed me to refactor the use of "bold", mentioned
      above.
    
    Refer to the issue tracker (or commit log) for further details:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues
  • 0.10.0
    aa3897c8 · Upgrade to version 0.10.0 ·
    Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.10.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-06-24
    
    This entry records the changes since version 0.9.0 (2020-06-03).  The
    present release is focused on stability and internal improvements.
    
    Fixes and adjustments
    ---------------------
    
    Basil L. Contovounisios, aka @basil-conto, (and also a contributor to
    core Emacs) sent several patches that do the following:
    
    + Fix top-level parentheses so that the results of
      'custom-theme-set-faces' and 'custom-theme-set-variables' are not
      passed as arguments to the first 'custom-theme-set-faces'.
    
    + Fix the docstrings of the custom 'modus-theme-*' faces.
    
    + Simplify the syntax of properties assigned to each face.
    
    + Improve the way styles are inherited by Dired and Ibuffer.
    
    Basil also pointed out an inconsistency with regard to an unwanted
    underline effect for the 'doom-modeline-urgent' face in Modus Vivendi.
    It was promptly removed.
    
    From my part, I fixed issues 46 and 51 that concerned the way the
    compiler would evaluate each theme's palette.  The palette is now
    defined as a constant.  Further information:
    
    - https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/46
    - https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/51
    
    Improvements to existing faces
    ------------------------------
    
    André Alexandre Gomes (@aadcg) provided valuable feedback and
    suggestions in issue 50 on the redesign of several 'org-mode' faces.
    
    The thread is long and contains lots of screenshots:
    https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/50
    
    The changes in outline:
    
    + Org checkboxes have a subtle background which gives them a more
      pronounced appearance while retaining their overall simplicity.
    
    + Org dates use a more saturated variant of cyan than they did before.
      It helps distinguish them from their context.  Especially true for
      dates inside of tables.
    
    + Org agenda dates have also undergone a slight review to match the
      above.
    
    + Org time grid now uses a more appropriate foreground colour, which has
      been designed specifically for unfocused context.
    
    + Org todo keywords use a more semantically-correct variant of red,
      rather than the purple one they had before.
    
    + Org statistics' cookies for pending tasks use a red variant as well
      rather than the previous yellow one, in the interest of consistency
      and to avoid exaggerations.
    
    Other internal refinements
    --------------------------
    
    + Subtle review of the Modus Vivendi palette.  In short, it addresses:
    
      - Imbalanced levels of luminance and inconsistent differences in hue
        between them and their neighbouring colours (e.g. the greens between
        them, and the greens next to the yellows in the context of syntax
        highlighting).  The result was that they would create an undesirable
        emphatic 'pop out' effect when placed close to more moderate
        colours.
    
      - Differences in luminance and hue could lead to scenaria where two
        colours could be conflated with each other or otherwise fail to
        perform their intended function.
    
      - The complete report is on my website:
        https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-06-13-modus-vivendi-palette-review/
    
    + Major review of the 'diredfl' faces, in the interest of improved
      readability and harmony between the various colours.  This benefits
      from the palette changes in Modus Vivendi, but also from a similar
      review to Modus Operandi that was documented in version 0.9.0.
    
    + Refactor the names of dedicates colours for "marking" purposes.  These
      are used in Dired, Ibuffer, Proced, etc.  Then apply them consistently
      throughout each theme.
    
    + Make sure that 'stripes' uses the same colours as 'hl-line-mode'.
    
    + Let symlinks use a more appropriate colour in Dired and Trashed.
    
    + Refine the use of colour in 'magit-tag', 'eshell-prompt',
      'message-header-name', 'log-edit-header', 'change-log-function',
      'message-mml', 'message-header-name', 'message-separator'.  These are
      subtle (i.e. difficult) tweaks that improve the overall presentation
      in context.
    
    + Make diff indicators not use an unnecessary background when the
      user-facing option for "subtle diffs" is enabled (check the README for
      the exact name of this option).  This ensures consistency between the
      indicators and the actual scope of the diffs.
    
    + Add support for the 'minibuffer-line' package and extend existing
      support of the faces used in the built-in Emacs info pages.
    
    My thanks to Basil and André for their contributions!
  • 0.9.0
    3406e29e · Upgrade to version 0.9.0 ·
    0.9.0
    
    Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.9.0
    
    By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-06-03
    
    This entry records the changes since version 0.8.0 (2020-04-28).  The
    present release contains about 50 commits, covering a month of active
    development.
    
    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.  The highest
    standard of its kind.
    
    All customisation options that are booleans 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 on the exact names of
    symbols and the like.
    
    New customisation options
    -------------------------
    
    + It is now possible to make the faces of Icomplete, Ido, and a few
      other related tools such as 'orderless', use coloured backgrounds to
      style their feedback.  This is the aesthetic already in effect for
      Ivy, Helm, and Selectrum.  The default is more subtle, in that it uses
      just an accented foreground value without any added background.
    
    + Advanced users can now override both the exact values of colour
      variables, as well as the mapping of properties/variables to faces.
      In practice this means that it is possible to completely change parts
      of the theme (or the entirety of it for that matter).  It also means
      that users can simply access the theme's palette for the sake of
      correctly passing the appropriate value to some bespoke face of
      theirs.
    
    + An extra increment for scaled headings is now available.  This should
      hold the highest value on the scale.  Such variables only take effect
      when the user opts for the "scaled headings" option.
    
    Overview of changes
    -------------------
    
    + A set of internal reforms were carried through in order to allow the
      colour palette to be accessed from user configuration files.  This
      required a lot of debugging work to make sure the themes compile
      properly and performance is not affected.
    
      - The original idea for this redesign was suggested by Len Trigg in
        issue 39: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/39.
        Len also provided a real-world implementation of this new option,
        which is included in the project's README.
    
      - André Alexandre Gomes helped figure out the problems caused by the
        initial design of this feature.  In particular, André identified a
        performance penalty as well as errors pertaining to byte
        compilation.  Everything was eventually resolved.  For more see
        issue 44: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/44.
    
    + Several org-mode faces were reviewed in order to cope well with mixed
      font settings.  This is about use-cases where the main typeface is
      proportionately-spaced, either by default or by some minor mode like
      the built-in 'variable-pitch-mode'.  The intent of configuring those
      faces is to make them always inherit a fixed-pitch (monospace) font
      family, in the interest of preserving the alignment of elements.  The
      idea, suggested code, as well as user feedback were offered by Ben in
      issue 40: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/40.
    
    + Mixed font settings may have some side-effects depending on user
      configurations.  This is unavoidable as we cannot control how users
      define their fonts.  Mark Barton reported one such case, while he was
      able to fix it by making use of the suggested typeface definitions.
      See issue 42: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/42.
    
    + The faces for the 'tab-bar-mode' and 'tab-line-mode' that ship with
      Emacs 27 were written anew.  Same for those of 'centaur-tabs'.  The
      ideas for the redesign as well as the overall aesthetic are Ben's, per
      issue 41: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/41.
    
    + An edge case with Helm's interpretation of colour values for its
      ripgrep interface was reported by Manuel Uberti in issue 49:
      https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/49.  It
      essentially had to do with the syntax for the regexp engine as read by
      the underlying 'rg' executable.  Collaboration on that front
      eventually led to fixes in Helm itself, committed by its maintainer.
      Note that the README for the Modus themes already contains information
      on how Helm applies a face to the matches of grep or grep-like
      commands.  Issue 49 confirmed what was already known in that regard
      (i.e. that the "--color=never" command-line option is required to use
      the Helm face, else a colour value from the ANSI colour vector is
      used---both are supported by the themes).
    
    + The faces for Flycheck, Flymake, and Flyspell that would apply an
      underline effect were completely rewritten to account for relevant
      differences between GUI and TUI Emacs.
    
      - For GUI Emacs, all affected faces will now just use a colour-coded
        wavy underline.  Empowered by the introduction of dedicated
        linter-related colours in prior commits (for version 0.8.0), we no
        longer have to change the foreground value of the offending text in
        addition to applying the underline effect.  Whereas before the text
        would also get repainted, which was too intrusive in most
        circumstances.
    
      - If support for wavy underlines is not available, we assume the
        presence of a TUI, which generally is relatively more limited in its
        ability to reproduce colours with precision (meaning that the
        dedicated linter colour could be distorted, potentially producing
        inaccessible combinations).  So for those cases we apply a straight
        underline combined with a colour-coded foreground for the affected
        text.  This makes it more intense compared to the GUI equivalent,
        but is the necessary course of action to overcome the constraints
        imposed by the underlying terminal.
    
    + The palette of Modus Operandi underwent lots of subtle changes to make
      the background value of hl-line-mode more visible while retaining the
      overall style and character of the theme.  In principle, you should
      not be able to tell the difference, unless presented with a careful
      side-by-side comparison.  This is the comprehensive report, including
      a reproducible org-mode document with all the relevant contrast ratios:
      https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-05-10-modus-operandi-palette-review/.
    
    + Fixed `org-hide' to actually "hide" by using the appropriate colour
      value.
    
    + Several other face groups received minor tweaks.
    
    + The README was improved to better present the available customisation
      options and to cover other topics of interest.
    
    + Updated the screen shots and their description in the relevant Wiki
      page: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/wikis/Screenshots.
    
    Added support for
    -----------------
    
    + circe
    + el-search
    + eros
    + golden-ratio-scroll-screen
    + highlight-indentation
    + hyperlist
    + indium
    + journalctl-mode
    + minimap
    + nxml-mode
    + vdiff
    + yasnippet
  • 0.8.1
    89a31f62 · Update to version 0.8.1 ·
    0.8.1
    
    Fixes a missing comma in a single colour variable.
  • 0.8.0
    29078bdb · Upgrade to version 0.8.0 ·
    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