Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

Hello everyone,

I am developing version-4 of the modus-themes.  Part of this endeavour
is the creation of four new themes.  Originally, we had 'modus-operandi'
(light theme) and 'modus-vivendi' (dark theme).  They are the ones that
are shipped with Emacs since version 28.

The new themes:

- 'modus-operandi-tinted' :: Has a light ochre ("earthly") set of
  backgrounds and a few other tweaks that make it easier on the eyes of
  some users.

- 'modus-vivendi-tinted' :: It is a night sky theme, meant to be easier
  on the eyes of some people than its 'modus-vivendi' counterpart.

- 'modus-operandi-deuteranopia' :: Like 'modus-operandi' but optimised
  for users with red-green colour deficiency (deuteranopia).  In
  practice, this means that it does NOT use red+green colour coding,
  such as in diff buffers, replacing those with hues that people with
  deuteranopia (or deuteranomaly) can discern.

- 'modus-vivendi-deuteranopia' :: Same as above, but for the dark theme.

All new themes are consistent with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard
for colour contrast.

Should these four new themes be added to emacs.git when I release
version-4?  Or should I just update only 'modus-operandi' and
'modus-vivendi'?

My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
lots of changes.

Thank you for your time!

All the best,
Protesilaos (or simply "Prot")

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Tim Cross]

Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> writes:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I am developing version-4 of the modus-themes.  Part of this endeavour
> is the creation of four new themes.  Originally, we had 'modus-operandi'
> (light theme) and 'modus-vivendi' (dark theme).  They are the ones that
> are shipped with Emacs since version 28.
>
> The new themes:
>
> - 'modus-operandi-tinted' :: Has a light ochre ("earthly") set of
>   backgrounds and a few other tweaks that make it easier on the eyes of
>   some users.
>
> - 'modus-vivendi-tinted' :: It is a night sky theme, meant to be easier
>   on the eyes of some people than its 'modus-vivendi' counterpart.
>
> - 'modus-operandi-deuteranopia' :: Like 'modus-operandi' but optimised
>   for users with red-green colour deficiency (deuteranopia).  In
>   practice, this means that it does NOT use red+green colour coding,
>   such as in diff buffers, replacing those with hues that people with
>   deuteranopia (or deuteranomaly) can discern.
>
> - 'modus-vivendi-deuteranopia' :: Same as above, but for the dark theme.
>
> All new themes are consistent with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard
> for colour contrast.
>
> Should these four new themes be added to emacs.git when I release
> version-4?  Or should I just update only 'modus-operandi' and
> 'modus-vivendi'?
>
> My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
> lots of changes.
>
> Thank you for your time!
>
> All the best,
> Protesilaos (or simply "Prot")

Really looking forward to the updated and new themes. I use the
modus-vivendi theme which I've tweaked slightly to have a very deep dark
green background. Overall, I think you have done an excellent job with
these themes and as someone with a significant vision impairment, I
really appreciate what you have done.

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

> From: Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 20:12:17 +1100

> [... 42 lines elided]

> Really looking forward to the updated and new themes. I use the
> modus-vivendi theme which I've tweaked slightly to have a very deep dark
> green background. Overall, I think you have done an excellent job with
> these themes and as someone with a significant vision impairment, I
> really appreciate what you have done.

Thank you!  I am happy to be helpful in this way.  If you think there is
something that can be improved, please let me know.

The new version makes it easier to override the themes' colours and also
to reassign values to "semantic colour mappings".  Before, I would
hardcode, say, blue to all faces representing a level 2 heading.  Now
there exists a semantic "heading-2" entry in the palette and the user
can easily set it to whatever colour they want---no need to stick with
blue or whatever.

The manual will cover the details.  In short: it is flexible and
powerful.

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com>
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 07:50:40 +0200
> 
> My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
> lots of changes.

In that case, when you are ready, it's okay to install this on the
master branch.  (Unless someone strenuously objects, which I don't
expect to happen.)

Thanks.

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 14:19:28 +0200
>
>> From: Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com>
>> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 07:50:40 +0200
>> 
>> My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
>> lots of changes.
>
> In that case, when you are ready, it's okay to install this on the
> master branch.  (Unless someone strenuously objects, which I don't
> expect to happen.)
>
> Thanks.

Very well!  Thank you!

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[T.V Raman]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain; charset=gb18030, Size: 187 bytes --]

Nice!
Could we arrange for the modus themes to get byte-compiled for speed-up? 

-- 

Thanks,

--Raman(I Search, I Find, I Misplace, I Research)
7©4 Id: kg:/m/0285kf1  •0Ü8

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Philip Kaludercic]

Protesilaos Stavrou <info@protesilaos.com> writes:

> Hello everyone,

Hi,

> I am developing version-4 of the modus-themes.  Part of this endeavour
> is the creation of four new themes.  Originally, we had 'modus-operandi'
> (light theme) and 'modus-vivendi' (dark theme).  They are the ones that
> are shipped with Emacs since version 28.
>
> The new themes:

[...]

> All new themes are consistent with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard
> for colour contrast.
>
> Should these four new themes be added to emacs.git when I release
> version-4?  Or should I just update only 'modus-operandi' and
> 'modus-vivendi'?

My main worry is that the default theme options could get too crowded.
Then again, if we want to keep deuteranopia support, the two new
variants will have to be added... (On that topic, I still think that the
approach I suggested earlier this year would be preferable: Instead of a
separate theme or multiple options, we just need to describe the
transformations that maximise the volume of the original colour space
within the boundaries of whatever is permissible for each kind of colour
deficiency).

The alternative is having the base themes in Emacs, and if anyone wants
more then they would have to download the themes from ELPA, right?

> My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
> lots of changes.

This might be a bit late, but I think that you were a bit too quick in
deprecating a lot of the user option, while also dropping backwards
compatibility.  Usually, an option is deprecated and users are given
hints what they have to do in the future, but everything will continue
working for now.  When I recently installed version-4, I noticed that a
number of things changed and I wasn't sure where to look to fix these
issues.  Now of course, this is just a visual theme and nothing about
Emacs breaks functionality-wise, but it would still be nice to have a
shim for now that translates old user options into the new configuration
pattern.

Re: Add four new Modus themes to Emacs?

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

> From: Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>
> Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:53:26 +0000

> [... 16 lines elided]

>> All new themes are consistent with the WCAG AAA accessibility standard
>> for colour contrast.
>>
>> Should these four new themes be added to emacs.git when I release
>> version-4?  Or should I just update only 'modus-operandi' and
>> 'modus-vivendi'?
>
> My main worry is that the default theme options could get too crowded.
> Then again, if we want to keep deuteranopia support, the two new
> variants will have to be added... (On that topic, I still think that the
> approach I suggested earlier this year would be preferable: Instead of a
> separate theme or multiple options, we just need to describe the
> transformations that maximise the volume of the original colour space
> within the boundaries of whatever is permissible for each kind of colour
> deficiency).

If there is such a transformation, I am happy to use it or, anyhow,
adapt accordingly.

With this new design, an extra theme is easy to develop and I can
exercise full control over its colour values.  The palette overrides the
themes provides make it particularly helpful for users who need specific
colour values.  I have received feedback from people who have various
degrees of deuteranomaly (not deuteranopia) and they all required
case-specific tweaks.  With the way I have it now in version-4, I can
tend to their needs on a case-by-case basis.

> The alternative is having the base themes in Emacs, and if anyone wants
> more then they would have to download the themes from ELPA, right?

Yes, that is an option.  The recipe in elpa.git will need to be updated,
as it was written before the :auto-sync and GNU-devel ELPA were
available.

>> My plan is to finalise version-4 by the end of this month.  It contains
>> lots of changes.
>
> This might be a bit late, but I think that you were a bit too quick in
> deprecating a lot of the user option, while also dropping backwards
> compatibility.  Usually, an option is deprecated and users are given
> hints what they have to do in the future, but everything will continue
> working for now.  When I recently installed version-4, I noticed that a
> number of things changed and I wasn't sure where to look to fix these
> issues.  Now of course, this is just a visual theme and nothing about
> Emacs breaks functionality-wise, but it would still be nice to have a
> shim for now that translates old user options into the new configuration
> pattern.

I did that before and it kept us on the path dependency of old design
decisions that could not accommodate new ideas.  This resulted in code
complexity that was difficult to maintain.  Ultimately though, it was
inflexible.  The trick part with accessibility is that it cannot be a
one-size-fits-all even though some guidelines are acceptable.

My plan for the coming days is to document everything and provide
detailed instructions on how to configure things.  I will also write
articles leading up to the release to demonstrate specific scenaria.

If I need to delay the release, I will.

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com