[Pan-users] Re: How can I set pan2 to show white letters on black backgrounds on all panes?

[SciFi]

On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:12:30 +0000, Duncan wrote:

> SciFi <address@hidden> posted
> address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 23 Apr 2007
> 18:06:53 +0000:
> 
>> We're using Apple's X11 but with the guts updated to current
>> XFree86-cvs (4.6.99.22+).
>> 
>> How might I set pan2 to show white (or 85% white) letters on a black
>> (15%) background?
>> 
>> Must I install the entire Gnome system to do this?  I'd rather not if
>> at all possible.  The quartz-wm is doing great as it is.
>> 
>> Apple's X11 does support the xinit and app-defaults stuff under
>> /etc/X11 .
>>  I have a set of defs in there for xterm to do white-on-black working
>>  fine
>> -- could I do this for pan2, too?
>> 
>> Thanks for any clues.  Hoping to let my eyes relax.  ;)
> 
> I strongly prefer light text on a dark background as well, and yes, it's
> possible with pan -- without GNOME. =8^)

yeay  :)

> I have no clue on Apple (as with most proprietary/slaveryware, I
> couldn't legally run it if I wanted to, given that I can't agree to the
> EULA and such are possibly enforceable here), but I imagine the same
> thing applies there as elsewhere, with perhaps a filesystem location
> difference, if any.

There are some closed-source parts of X11 here, including
quartz-wm itself.  To upgrade the guts as I put it, we configure
and install the cvs build right on top of Apple's X11 in
/usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11.  That way we "keep" the closed parts
which seem to work fine with the new code.

Some parms of the ~/.Xdefaults and /etc/X11 files are ignored,
mainly because it's built to use Apple's OSX drivers for video &
audio & input devices etc. rather than "direct connection" to
the circuitry.  But Apple was a main group responsible for
speeding-up X11 in the first place by leveraging OpenGL's
hardware support for a great deal of the grunt work going on.  I
believe most if not all of their source changes have been fed
up-stream to the open projects, so everyone ought to be
experiencing similar boosts.  Why do they continue to keep
other parts closed I'll never understand...

Believe me, I've been rather vocal about Apple reneging on their
open source promises.  I won't mind "switching" (*ahem*) to the
real FreeBSD or a PPC-ready version of Linux (Ubuntu looks
promising) if they keep acting the way they do (worser & worser
as time goes on...).

> pan is based on gtk, and it's the gtk color settings you need to change.
> Look for a file similar to gtkrc or gtkrc-2.0, possibly as a hidden file
> (.gtkrc) in your home dir, or under /etc or /etc/gtk-2.0 or the like --
> or whatever the equivalent subdir for your installation (/local/ or the
> like) might be.  You might not have one if nothing has set anything
> other than the defaults.

The locate database here ought to be up-to-date, then verified
manually.  Found nothing under user's or root's homedirs (used
for installing).  Elsewhere, nothing found but the 3-line
commented gtkrc files under /usr/local/share/themes (a big key
rc for Emacs there).  And under /usr/local/etc/gtk-2.0 there are
the gdk-pixbuf.loaders and gtk-immodules, that's all.  :(

> You can also set GTK2_RC_FILES to a colon delimited list of file
> locations, and it will build a config out of the union of all of them (I
> believe later settings overwrite earlier ones if they set the same
> thing).
> 
> As for the gtkrc files themselves, initially, my colors were set (and at
> least one of my files created) when I checked the box in KDE to export
> my prefs to non-KDE apps.  However, I've modified them a bit manually
> since then.  If you have no such files to serve as a starting place or
> otherwise might find mine useful, ask, and I'll post them.  (One of the
> reasons I prefer KDE to GNOME is that the KDE settings are easier, both
> in the GUI and to set manually, than GTK/GNOME.  Some of the GTK
> settings can be rather obscure and aren't so intuitive, at least to me,
> so a file to start on can be quite useful.)  My background isn't black;
> I prefer a bit of color, but it's a middle-dark cadetblue, a bit darker
> than the named cadetblue4 but about the same blue-green-gray hue. 
> Default text is white.  However, it should serve as a starting place, if
> you wish to edit them manually.

I've skimmed the provided html docs (I didn't want to scour all
the requisites for the gtk-doc pkg).  It's overwhelming -- what
widget do I modify for pan2 to get the colors I want, while not
inadverently changing other things ... etc. ...  ;)

I do see pan2's color settings for various "scores".  It'd be
real nice if Charles would put in some settings for the panes in
general.  ;)  I'm not too keen on the kind of programming
needed, else I'd take a stab at it myself (I get deep into the
system stuff).

So I wonder if you wouldn't mind posting enough to get started? 
I'd really appreciate it.

btw on Macs when working with color, one learns to use neutral
greys for desktop and other items, else your eyes will be
fooled.  One ought to calibrate with the ColorSync tools, too.

> Or... There are GTK2 themes and a theme manager around, that wouldn't
> require installing all of Gnome, and you've already the GTK2 base, so...
> Again, I don't believe they offer individual color choices, only themes
> (grr!!), but they may do stuff like bitmap-textures and the like, that
> are beyond the simple KDE color inheritance that forms the basis of
> mine.

yeah, it'd be better to keep it as simple as possible (KISS).  ;)

Thank you much for your time & trouble.