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0.12.067554a62 · ·
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)
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0.11.0c376b080 · ·
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
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0.10.0aa3897c8 · ·
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!
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0.9.03406e29e · ·
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
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0.8.029078bdb · ·
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
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0.7.0cedb3310 · ·
0.7.0 Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi version 0.7.0 By Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> on 2020-03-30 This entry documents the changes since version 0.6.0 (2020-03-01). The present release is the largest to date containing 110 commits. All changes conform with the primary objective of this project, which is conformance with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard for colour contrast. This represents 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. Refer to the README or each theme's source code for the names of these user-facing symbols. Major refinements to existing face groups ----------------------------------------- + The headline feature of this release is a refined set of colours for visualising version-control-system differences ("diffs"). The new colours are less intense than before and are designed to better convey the meaning of the constructs they apply to. Affected face groups are those of 'magit' and 'diff-mode'. A future release will assess how similar packages, such as 'ediff', can benefit from this work. + The other major set of changes concerns the colours that apply to fringes (see 'fringe-mode'). A new customisation option allows for a distinct background for the fringes (courtesy of Anders Johansson in commit 80fb704). The default uses the same colours as the main buffer's background. Building on this effort, fringe indicators, such as those of 'flycheck' now benefit from an entirely new set of background+foreground colour combinations that are designed specifically for the fringes. + A new customisation option allows users to render 'org-mode' source blocks in a distinct background colour. The default is to use the same background as the rest of the buffer. When this option is enabled, the background colour for the beginning and end line of such blocks is extended to the end of the window (using the ':extend t' attribute for >= Emacs 27). Older Emacs versions already extend to the end of the window. + The colour combination that shows the matching parentheses or delimiters has been reviewed. The commit is fairly small and the changes are immediately noticeable only to the most discerning of eyes. Still, the considerations informing the review imposed a rigorous method. Rather than summarise the findings, interested readers are advised to refer to commit af3a327: it offers a comprehensive analysis on the matter. Added support for packages (A-Z) -------------------------------- + auctex/tex + bm + buffer-expose + centaur-tabs + cider (tentative, feedback is much appreciated) + csv-mode + dynamic-ruler + ebdb + elfeed-score + flyspell-correct + fold-this + freeze-it + frog-menu + git-walktree + helm-switch-shell + highlight-defined + highlight-escape-sequences (hes-mode) + highlight-numbers + highlight-thing + hl-todo + ioccur + julia + kaocha-runner + markup-faces (adoc-mode) + multiple-cursors + num3-mode + org-roam + org-superstar + org-treescope + outline-minor-mode + paradox + rainbow-identifiers + rg + ripgrep + sallet (tentative, feedback is much appreciated) + selectrum + sesman + side-notes + skewer-mode + stripes + symbol-overlay + syslog-mode + vc-annotate (C-x v g) + volatile-highlights + web-mode + yaml-mode Note about VC-annotate ---------------------- Quoting from the relevant note in the project's README: Due to the unique way `vc-annotate' (`C-x v g') applies colours, support for its background mode (`vc-annotate-background-mode') is disabled at the theme level. Normally, such a drastic measure should not belong in a theme: assuming the user's preferences is bad practice. However, it has been deemed necessary in the interest of preserving colour contrast accessibility while still supporting a useful built-in tool. If there actually is a way to avoid such a course of action, without prejudice to the accessibility standard of this project, then please report as much (or contribute as per the information in the Contributing section). Overview of refinements to already supported packages ----------------------------------------------------- In this section the notion of "dedicated colours" pertains to colour values that are reserved for special faces. They are never used for syntax highlighting or other common scenaria. + Define new background colours for fringe indicators (as noted in the first section). Apply them to 'bm', 'diff-hl', 'git-gutter', 'flycheck' fringe indicators. All such indicators are now made more visible and work better with the new customisation option for rendering the fringes in a distinct background. + Define dedicated colours for tab-like interfaces. Currently these apply only to 'centaur-tabs'. The intention is to eventually implement them to the tab modes that ship with Emacs 27, as well as any other package that offers such functionality. + Define dedicated colours for actions that "mark" items. Use them in 'dired', 'proced', 'gnus'. An accented background is combined with an accented foreground. The intention is to make the underlying construct distinct even under circumstances where the mark's background changes, such as when it intersects with 'hl-line-mode' or 'stripes': the accented foreground will still be recognisable as a colour that differs from the main foreground. The use of a bold font weight further reinforces the intended action. + Refine 'dired' faces to account for the new "mark" styles. Directories are no longer rendered in a bold weight. + Tweak the colours used in the built-in 'diary' and 'calendar' for better usability. + Tweak 'deadgrep' colours for consistency with packages that offer similar functionality. + Tweak 'compilation-line-number' in the interest of consistency with similar interfaces. + Use a more appropriate colour for 'trailing-whitespace'. It now is a colour value that was designed specifically as a background. + Expand 'fountain-mode' support by covering its new heading faces. The headings will be presented in larger font sizes, or using proportional fonts, should the user enable the relevant theme customisation options (see README or source code). + Remove bold weight from matching parentheses in 'show-paren-mode' and 'smartparens'. The temporarily applied bold weight can cause misalignments while using certain fonts. Also apply the new colours for matching delimiters, as documented in the first section. + Refine 'outline-mode' colours to be consistent with those of Org's headings. + Several usability and colour refinements for 'helm' and related packages in that milieu. + Remove box property from emphasis markers in the mode line. It created inconsistencies with other faces. + Refine the colours used in Magit logs, `change-log', `log-view'. They are meant to be more distinct from their context, without drawing too much attention to themselves. + Minor internal fixes for indentation and the like. Miscellaneous changes and concluding remarks -------------------------------------------- + Add section in the README which documents a legal requirement for all potential non-trivial code contributions: the need to assign copyright to the Free Software Foundation. The Modus Themes are now distributed via the official GNU ELPA repository and copyright over them is assigned to the FSF. + Add CHANGELOG file which consolidates all tagged release notes such as this one. + Add new screen shots to the relevant Wiki page, together with detailed descriptions on what is being demonstrated: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/wikis/Screenshots Special thanks to Manuel Uberti for reporting several issues and offering feedback where appropriate. I was able to add support for lots of new packages. While a few among the already supported face groups underwent tweaks and refinements. The 'helm' ecosystem benefited the most. Thanks to Anders Johansson for the patch that introduced the fringes-related customisation option. It inspired me to reconsider the use of this particular area of the interface, which eventually led to the barrage of commits that refashioned the fringe indicators. A major win overall. Thanks to Jonathan Otsuka for fixing an error of mine on the naming of some symbols. My apologies for missing it: I will be more careful from now on. Note: both patches were small, requiring no copyright assignment. Larger contributions are always welcome, though make sure you read the section in the README with regard to assigning copyright to the Free Software Foundation.
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0.6.0a9d1ae86 · ·
Version 0.6.0 This release contains lots of refinements and additions. Let me start with an administrative point: I have completed the process of assigning my copy rights to the Free Software Foundation. This covers every contribution I make to GNU Emacs. In practice, it means that the Modus themes can now be included in the official ELPA archive and theoretically be shipped with Emacs itself. The ELPA inclusion is ongoing. Once it is completed, I will update the docs accordingly. The administrative change has no effect on the way this project is handled. I still am the developer/maintainer and will continue to improve things further. If you still have questions, feel free to contact me: https://protesilaos.com/contact Moving on to the changes since version 0.5.0 (2020-01-26). Added support for: + alert + apropos (built-in) + dap-mode + deft + dim-autoload + dired-git + enhanced-ruby-mode + gbd-mi.el (built-in library) + helm-ls-git + helm-xref + imenu-list + jira (org-jira) + js2-mode + jupyter + org-pomodoro + origami + rmail (built-in) + vc-print-log (built-in) + window-divider-mode (built-in) + xref (built-in) Refinements to existing faces: + A new subset of "nuanced" accent colours has been introduced. These are named {red,green,yellow,blue,magenta,cyan}-nuanced. Their purpose is to be used in contexts where lots of structured information is presented to the user, but each component does not need to draw too much attention to itself (e.g. Org's metadata). As always, their contrast ratio is designed to always be >= 7:1 relative to the backgrounds they may be combined with. + Greatly improve the support for Gnus, even though most changes are subtle and are made in the interest of consistency. The group levels now make use of the "nuanced" palette where appropriate (to denote levels of lower importance). + Several refinements for Org, including the use of "nuanced" colours for various metadata tags. The agenda headers will now be scaled appropriately and use a variable-pitch font if the user sets the relevant customisation values of the theme they are using (check the documentation in each theme file or the repo's README). + Lots of refinements for Helm. Some of these were introduced to align the overall aesthetic with equivalent metaphors in Ivy. Others are meant to improve the styles of the headers and make various constructs consistent with their variants in the Helm ecosystem but also with their non-Helm counterparts (such as xref file names with and without Helm, but also with Helm's grep). + Improve the colours of buttons in contexts such as M-x customize. This is especially noticeable in modus-vivendi-theme (the dark theme) where the buttons are a darker shade of grey rather than the original lighter one. + Keycast now uses styles that are more consistent with the overall aesthetic of the Modus themes. This means that the mode line indicators are blue-ish (blue is generally used for highlights in the mode line, but also when hovering over an item with the mouse pointer). The pseudo button effect (colours + 3d) has been removed in favour of a flat look, in line with the flatness of the mode line itself. Whereas before the keycast faces where designed to be consistent with the package's defaults. There were also a few minor refinements for: + calendar and diary + icomplete + mm-uu-extract + nobreak-hyphen and nobreak-space + org-habit + tooltip-mode Finally, the Commentary section of each theme has been greatly expanded. It now includes the user-facing customisation options and the complete list of supported packages.
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0.5.0ec9332a6 · ·
Version 0.5.0 This release contains support for several new packages and lots of refinements for existing ones. A lot of work went into making the themes more robust by reviewing the inheritance of styles from one face group to another (in general, the ':inherit' property should not be used frivolously). Several subtle changes were made to the colour palette of both themes to ensure consistency, enable more possible combinations, and avoid potential ambiguity under certain potential circumstances. Overall, this release gives me confidence that the themes have reached a fairly stable state. What follows is an overview of the changes since version 0.4.0 (2020-01-02). Added support for: + equake + flymake + focus + fountain (fountain-mode) + git-lens + git-timemachine + hi-fill-column + highlight-blocks + info-colors + lsp-mode + lsp-ui + proced (built-in) + regexp-builder (built-in) + suggest Refinements: + The header line uses its own dedicated colours. Several changes were made in 'eww', 'info', 'elfeed', 'magit', 'flycheck' to make sure that any accent value that appears there conforms with the overarching accessibility objective of the Modus themes (contrast ratio of >= 7:1, else WCAG AAA). + 'ivy' no longer uses a box style for the current line, as that was not always reliable. Appropriate colours are used instead. + 'org-mode' blocks use a foreground value that distinguishes their opening and closing tags from source code comments. + The 'org-ellipsis' face was configured to always inherit the looks of its respective heading or element, rather than have its own excessive styling. + 'paren-match' has colours that are designed specifically for it. This is done to retain their utility while making sure they are not mistaken for some other type of feedback. + 'magit' has explicit styles for the mode line process indicators, instead of inheriting from another face. The intention is to use foreground values that are designed specifically for use on the mode line (the minimum contrast ratio requirement). + 'erc' faces have been thoroughly reviewed in the interest of better usability. Its mode line indicators now use appropriate colours. + The faces of the 'messages' library have been thoroughly reviewed. This affects various email interfaces, but also 'elfeed' entry metadata headings. + 'whitespace-mode' no longer has a newline character that stands out. That kind of emphasis was not necessary, given that the symbol used is a dollar sign, which is already far more visible than a mid dot. + 'font-lock' (generic syntax highlighting) has better colour combinations for regexp grouping constructs. + 'rainbow-delimiters' was given its missing base error face. + 'git-commit' comment action uses a slightly different foreground value than before to better match its context. + 'isearch' and 'query-replace' use colours that properly denote each action's utility. + 'visual-regexp' has been reviewed to make the matching groups more distinct from each other. + 'occur' and any other buffer that relies on the 'match' face can now benefit from the new colour combinations, in that its results cannot be confused for the active 'isearch' or 'query-replace' or even their lazily highlighted results (or, indeed, of any other search tool). + 'company' uses faces for its search feedback that are consistent with other search metaphors. + Emacs 27's new ':extend' property is only implemented where necessary (note that the latest release is version 26.3).
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0.4.0ed89fbe2 · ·
Version 0.4.0 This is an overview of the changes since version 0.3.0 (2019-12-25). Add support for: + ert + flycheck-indicator + mentor + mu4e-conversation + powerline-evil + telephone-line + vc (built-in version control) Refinements to already-supported packages: + company-mode (several refinements) + doom-modeline (major review) + helm (several tweaks) + hl-line-mode (use unique background) + ivy (improve matching line) + line-number-mode (minor tweaks) + markdown-mode (comprehensive expansion) + mode-line (more appropriate styles for the highlight) + powerline (minor tweaks) + region (use unique background) + swiper (improve matching line in main window) + whitespace-mode (several refinements) + mu4e (tweak mu4e-modeline-face for consistency) Miscellaneous: + Fix actual and potential problems with cursor faces that would distort the use of appropriate background and foreground colours. The documentation stipulates that the `cursor' face cannot be inherited by other faces, due to its peculiar nature of only recognising the background colour. + Add support for more bold constructs in code. As with all such options, it is disabled by default, expecting the user to explicitly opt in. + Declare additional custom faces. Only meant for internal use. + Subtle refinements to "active" colour values in both Modus Operandi and Modus Vivendi. These mostly concern the mode line (with a few special exceptions), where emphasis has been placed on the need to provide greater contrast between accent values that can be used there. + Minor documentation refinements.
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0.3.053b4fed8 · ·
Release version 0.3.0 Overview of changes since 0.2.0 (2019-12-18): + Add support for the following packages: * apt-sources-list * calfw * counsel-css * counsel-notmuch * counsel-org-capture-string * cov * disk-usage * evil-visual-mark-mode * geiser * keycast * org-journal * org-noter * paren-face * powerline * vc * xah-elisp-mode + Explicitly style the following packages (these were already covered, in terms of the colours they used, but are now targeted directly): * calendar * counsel * cursor * package (M-x list-packages) + Minor tweaks to face groups: * dired * compile + Fixes and refinements: * Documentation strings will now inherit the option for slanted constructs (off by default -- see the README about all the user options). * Comment delimiters have the same styles as the body of the comment to avoid inconsistencies when the option for slanted constructs is enabled. * The line number that is displayed in the compile log is now correctly styled. * Removed duplicate entries for ivy-remote and added ivy-separator. * Ensure that the minibuffer prompt is always above the minimum contrast ratio of 7:1, by using a more appropriate shade of cyan. * Properly reference a couple of variables in Modus Vivendi. + Internal adjustments: * Decouple the core dired faces from those of external packages. * Same for org and org-recur. + Minor documentation updates.
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0.2.172475ded · ·
Fix version in files. For the release notes, refer to version 0.2.0: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/tags/0.2.0
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0.2.0dfbedac6 · ·
Release version 0.2.0 Overview of changes since 0.1.0 (2019-12-09): + Comprehensive review of `org-mode' faces. The use of colour should now be more consistent with the semantics of each element. These should also respond better to a variety of combinations, such as when the user has `hl-line-mode' enabled. The agenda view is the greatest beneficiary of this review. + Make `mu4e' mode line faces consistent with other elements that may be placed on the mode line. + Make `gnus' header name/subject more distinct. + Several minor refinements to `ivy' and its extensions. + General usability refinements to `ace-window'. + Minor review of `elfeed' styles, in the interest of improving the contrast between the elements. + Add support for: + `persp-mode' (fork of the already supported `perspective') + `dashboard' + `evil-mode' + `evil-goggles' + `ruler-mode'
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