bug#14984: 24.3.50; "-bg black" command line option should automatically set foreground color

bug#14984: 24.3.50; "-bg black" command line option should automatically set foreground color

[Miles Bader]

The Emacs defaults are white background and black foreground colors.

If one starts emacs with just "-bg black", it results in black text on a
black background, although most colored emacs faces are ok as they
automatically adapt the black background.

This is obviously not so user friendly, and it would be good if emacs
automatically chose a foreground color to match the background color
(absent any explicit "-fg" option).

Thanks,

-miles


In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.2 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10)
 of 2013-05-13 on catnip
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux unstable (sid)

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
ESC x r e p o r t - e m a TAB RET

Recent messages:
("emacs")
Loading term/xterm...done
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
current-kill: Kill ring is empty

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort nadvice gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec
rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse
rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045
ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils time-date tooltip ediff-hook
vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image
regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode register page
menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock
syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang
vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek
romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer loaddefs
button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5
base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote make-network-process dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting
system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x
multi-tty emacs)

-- 
Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra.  Suddenly it flips over,
pinning you underneath.  At night the ice weasels come.  --Nietzsche

bug#14984: 24.3.50; "-bg black" command line option should automatically set foreground color

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> writes:

> The Emacs defaults are white background and black foreground colors.
>
> If one starts emacs with just "-bg black", it results in black text on a
> black background, although most colored emacs faces are ok as they
> automatically adapt the black background.
>
> This is obviously not so user friendly, and it would be good if emacs
> automatically chose a foreground color to match the background color
> (absent any explicit "-fg" option).

Hm...  Well, it might be more user-friendly, but I think it would be
slightly surprising to also change the -fg colour when you set -bg on
the command line.  The foreground colour may be specified in .Xdefaults
or something.

I guess if there is absolutely no foreground colour specification, then
setting the foreground upon -bg black would be friendlier, but what if
the user said -bf "#000001" (i.e., "almost black")?

So I think special-casing one particular value to DWIM would be
difficult to justify, and I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#14984: 24.3.50; "-bg black" command line option should automatically set foreground color

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>
> Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2019 21:07:34 -0700
> Cc: 14984@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > If one starts emacs with just "-bg black", it results in black text on a
> > black background, although most colored emacs faces are ok as they
> > automatically adapt the black background.
> >
> > This is obviously not so user friendly, and it would be good if emacs
> > automatically chose a foreground color to match the background color
> > (absent any explicit "-fg" option).
> 
> Hm...  Well, it might be more user-friendly, but I think it would be
> slightly surprising to also change the -fg colour when you set -bg on
> the command line.  The foreground colour may be specified in .Xdefaults
> or something.
> 
> I guess if there is absolutely no foreground colour specification, then
> setting the foreground upon -bg black would be friendlier, but what if
> the user said -bf "#000001" (i.e., "almost black")?
> 
> So I think special-casing one particular value to DWIM would be
> difficult to justify, and I'm closing this bug report.

I agree.