[Pan-users] New group-colors support, black default doesn't work with "reverse" color-schemes

[Duncan]

OK, so I've tried posting this to the related thread on the devel list, 
but for whatever reason, I've had very mixed luck posting there, 
recently.  Most of my posts don't seem to make it, at least not back to 
gmane where I'd read them, but just enough do so I know it's not a 
blanket-dead path...  which kept me trying for quite some time.  (And 
after each try, I'd wait to see if it was just taking a bit long to make 
it, and between that and some hardware issues I'm having ATM, crashing at 
the wrong time...)

So I'll try the user list where my luck seems better!


OK, here's the deal.  The group colors code is working now; I can change 
colors in group prefs and it sticks. Good!  =:^)  (And the ASCII ae is 
working in the user-agent header "Der Geraet", aka "The Tool", "The 
Device" now.  Good! =:^)

But, the default group-pane color is still hard-coded black text, which 
is pretty much unreadable on any "reverse" color scheme with (normally) 
light text colors against dark backgrounds (dark blue, in my case).  
Which is still OK for groups you use enough to bother changing the 
default color for, but the other day, for instance, I needed to look up 
an unsubscribed group name, and found to my great dismay that I couldn't 
read any of them, because they were all black text on my usual dark blue 
background!

Two possible solutions:

1. Detect the gtk scheme background color and auto-adjust the default 
text color accordingly.

2. Take the approach Charles did with this sort of thing, and simply add 
another color pref on the colors tab of pan prefs. =:^)

We'd add another section, Group Pane, with a single entry, 
"Default group text:".

Except, I don't see anything else using "default" in the description.  
Petr's the guy to ask.  "Default" is a useful enough word for coders and 
others into computers, but is it a common enough concept to work for non-
computer-types?   Better suggestion?

#2 should I think be easier and will fit with the way pan already works, 
since as I said, Charles already took that approach for a number of 
things, including URL color, for instance, when I complained about his 
hard-coded color choice for it.  (Seems my "reverse" color-scheme makes 
me a good guinea-pig for testing such things! =:^] )  My big question is 
whether "Default group text:" is a sufficient label, or whether there's a 
better alternative.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman