Re: Using built-in modus themes

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

On 2022-03-04, 08:29 +0000, Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> wrote:

> Tor Kringeland <tor.a.s.kringeland@ntnu.no> writes:
>
>> I'm trying to configure and use the modus themes as described in [1].
>> I'm on a build of Emacs 29 so these are built in.  While I can enable
>> the themes by using `load-theme', if I execute
>>
>>   (require 'modus-themes)
>>
>> as described in [1] I get an error saying that the file is missing.
>> However if I first load a theme using `load-theme', then executing the
>> above yields no error.
>>
>> Shouldn't running the above work since the themes are part of Emacs now
>> (so that I could put it in my config)?  I'm running `emacs -Q' and this
>> fails then.
>
> I agree, it should, an I have also had issues with this problem.
>
> From what I see, the "issue" is that modus-themes is not in the
> `load-path'.  When you `load-theme' one of the two modus-themes,
> `modus-themes' is also added to `features', the list maintaining
> activated features.  `require' checks this list before loading a
> feature, and as it has already been added, no error is thrown and it
> appears to work.
>
> One way this could be solved would be to add the themes directory to
> `load-path', but I suspect there is some reason this hasn't been done
> already.
>
> (I have CC'ed Protesilaos to see what he has to say).

Thank you Philip for including me in this exchange!

Yes, adding the "etc/themes" directory to the 'load-path' would fix this
issue.  Though note that this is not my decision to make: it should be
brought before the Emacs maintainers.

[ In my opinion, built-in themes are no different than other .el files.
  They should be accessible via 'M-x find-library', be byte compiled,
  included in the 'load-path', etc. ]

I updated the project's README accordingly (will do the same for the
manual).

    ## Quick setup for the latest version

    ### Built-in version

    For the themes that are built into Emacs you cannot `require` the
    package.  Use the following instead.

    With `use-package`:

    ```elisp
    (use-package emacs
      :init
      ;; Add all your customizations prior to loading the themes
      (setq modus-themes-italic-constructs t
            modus-themes-bold-constructs nil
            modus-themes-region '(bg-only no-extend))

      :config
      (load-theme 'modus-operandi) ;; OR (load-theme 'modus-vivendi)
      :bind ("<f5>" . modus-themes-toggle)
    ```

    Without `use-package`:

    ```elisp
    ;; Add all your customizations prior to loading the themes
    (setq modus-themes-italic-constructs t
          modus-themes-bold-constructs nil
          modus-themes-region '(bg-only no-extend))

    ;; Load the theme of your choice:
    (load-theme 'modus-operandi) ;; OR (load-theme 'modus-vivendi)

    (define-key global-map (kbd "<f5>") #'modus-themes-toggle)
    ```

   ### Packaged version
   [...]

Tor, can you please tell me if this works for you?

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com