On 06.09.2020 20:07, Ergus wrote:
> Your link is basically a set of personal opinions with not concise
> arguments at all against the "popular" keys that support dark mode use.
Here's a more serious overview of related research:
https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/53268/136203
Spoiler alert: light mode wins.
It's been a while since I dove into the research around this, but from this thread it seems to still be the case that context makes a large, in many cases overriding difference. From that link:
For applications which provide long-form reading (books, articles, even news sites), dark mode options are recommended.
Many of those studies are concerned about visual acuity in very short-term tasks -- correctly reading text that appears and disappears quickly, such as alerts or notifications. It also notes that matching the background to the environment (light in bright rooms, etc.) is key for sustained reading.
There's more research these days on glancing at small, very-hi-res screens, which is nice (and unsurprising), but probably isn't all that helpful for typical Emacs use (if there is such a thing as "typical" Emacs use). This doesn't seem to be the sort of issue that's going to be resolved with a clear "objectively better in most cases" argument, and Emacs has very clearly declared (for decades) its conservatism towards UI changes, so we're probably better off not painting this particular bikeshed.
That's my opinion, at least. I do think Emacs' new user experience could be improved by adding some options/actions on display-splash-screen, though, and I'd be happy to help with that.
Hope that helps,
~Chad