Protesilaos Stavrou

Modus themes 1.2.0 for GNU Emacs

Just published version 1.2.0 of the Modus themes. The detailed release notes are reproduced below. For any questions pertaining to this publication feel welcome to contact me.

My immediate task now is to prepare patches for upstream Emacs so that the modus-operandi-theme and modus-vivendi-theme can be updated from version 0.13.0 to the current one.

Modus themes version 1.2.0

By Protesilaos Stavrou info@protesilaos.com on 2021-03-04

This entry records the changes introduced to the project since the publication of version 1.1.0 (2021-01-24). There have been close to 100 commits in the meantime.

Every colour-related modification documented herein conforms with the overarching accessibility objective of the themes for a minimum contrast ratio of 7:1 between background and foreground values in their given combination (the WCAG AAA standard).

As the official manual is referenced several times throughout this log, make sure to store its URL: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/modus-themes. Or read it from Emacs’ Info reader by evaluating this form:

(info "(modus-themes) Top")

If you are coming from older versions, please consult the change log entry for version 1.0.0 with regard to the breaking changes that were introduced.

Prior notice: Upgrading the themes in Emacs28 and GNU ELPA

Emacs28, the current development target, now includes a require-theme function. It is a prerequisite to upgrading the Modus themes to their current version. Prior to the definition of that function, the themes could not transition from their 0.13.0 version to >=1.0.0. Special thanks to Basil L. Contovounesios for making it happen, as well Mauro Aranda and Eli Zaretskii for their feedback and support.

Expect the Modus themes in upstream Emacs to be updated shortly after the publication of this document.

GNU ELPA currently ships version 0.12.0 of the two standalone packages modus-operandi-theme and modus-vivendi-theme. This will change in the immediate future, as a new modus-themes package will succeed them. That new package will be built directly from emacs.git, as it must now become a :core entity instead of being listed as an :external one.

Again, expect a patch to be applied to elpa.git shortly after this document goes live.

Customisation options

[ All variables and their values are documented in the themes’ manual. The default value is always nil. ]

  • The new boolean modus-themes-subtle-line-numbers variable will make the effect of display-line-numbers-mode more subtle when set to a non-nil value. It removes the underlying background of the unfocused lines while toning down their foreground.

  • The modus-themes-diffs variable now accepts a deuteranopia value. This optimises for red-green colour deficiency in all modes that show diffs (diff-mode, ediff, Magit…). In practice, all instances of green are replaced with appropriate blue hues. For more on the matter, read the report which also includes pictures: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2021-02-25-modus-themes-diffs-deuteranopia/.

  • The modus-themes-syntax variable now reads faint-yellow-comments as a valid value. This has the same scope as the existing faint value with the added effect of assigning a yellow tint to comments: it tones down the saturation of colours that apply to code syntax (standard font-lock faces and others inheriting from them).

  • The modus-themes-links variable is expanded to accept the new value of neutral-underline-only: it removes the foreground from the link and draws a neutral gray underline below it.

Refinements to existing packages or face groups

  • Refashioned all faces that pertain to emails, including Gnus, Mu4e, Notmuch, and the standard message.el library. This concerns the colours that apply to the message header keys and their values, as well as quote levels.

    • Introduced more contrasting hues for headings and made more considerate use of bold typography. The new colour combinations are better suited for the task of delivering a sense of structure; structure that is at once effective and subtle.

    • Applied less intense colours throughout all quotation levels.

    • Revised the sequencing of hues in quotation levels to allow distinct levels to stand out more without relying on excessive saturation.

    • Aligned the styling of Notmuch header dates with their counterparts in other similar contexts, in pursuit of theme-wide consistency.

  • Rewrote the faces of EBDB to achieve a better sense of structure.

  • Refined the colour combinations of change-log and log-view buffers to make it easier to discern distinct elements.

  • Tweaked the colours of certain Elfeed constructs to improve the overall presentation of its search buffers.

  • Changed the colour combinations of M-x re-builder to amplify the distinction between the matching regexp groups while still reducing their overall intensity.

  • Reconfigured the diff-changed face to always extend its background to the edge of the window. Such “changed” lines are visible in diff-mode buffers when the command diff-unified->context is invoked.

  • Tweaked the colour combinations of ancillary faces in diff buffers when the variable modus-themes-diffs is set to the value fg-only. In particular:

    • Removed the subtle background from the diff hunk headings and changed their colour to ensure good visibility—guarantees a sense of structure.

    • Made the context lines inherit the default foreground colour (pure black/white), so that it contrasts better with red, green, and yellow text.

    • Applied an accented foreground to the diff header. This is to ensure that it is not mistaken for a diff hunk’s context.

    All these guarantee that the foreground-only highlights in line-wise differences draw more attention to themselves.

  • Aligned all the standard hi-* faces with their default aesthetics. Those are used by commands such as highlight-symbol-at-point. Thanks to Philip K. for the valuable feedback in issue 157: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/157.

  • Removed obsolete Consult faces and added new ones, so as to remain in sync with the latest developments in that project. Thanks to Daniel Mendler (Consult’s maintainer) for reporting the inconsistency in issue 155: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/155.

    • consult-preview-line now retains fontification on the current line, instead of applying its own foreground.

    • consult-narrow-indicator is refashioned to be colour-coded in a consistent way with consult-async-split, as both denote the delineation of a given scope.

    • consult-imenu-prefix contrasts better with text on its current line, while it adapts to possible customisations performed on the Consult front.

  • Expanded the coverage of marginalia faces to two include marginalia-char and marginalia-type. This is done in the interest of internal consistency between the elements of this set, as their defaults were also accessible (they inherit from standard faces that we already support).

  • Opted to render the Notmuch logo in a neutral gray backdrop. This was deemed necessary as the logo is an immutable image file that consists of black and white strokes. Black and white are the main background values of modus-vivendi and modus-operandi respectively, which could lead to confusion. The neutral gray ensures that the logo is visible at all times. Thanks to Utkarsh Singh for the feedback in issue 122: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/122.

  • Refined the dedicated colour values used for diff hunk headings, as seen in diff-mode buffers or Magit. The new colours yield text that is easier to read by slightly toning down the combined intensity of background+foreground.

  • Removed the subtle background of diff-header and diff-file-header. The header’s foreground and textual representation suffice to render it distinct in its context.

  • Tweaked org-agenda-structure and org-scheduled to enhance the usability of Org Agenda buffers.

    • Made org-agenda-structure use the largest possible height that we expose to users: modus-themes-scale-5.

    • Re-calibrated the hueness of org-scheduled and amplified its saturation, in order to better convey the meaning of a scheduled task.

    Thanks to Morgan Smith for the valuable feedback in issue 153: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/153.

  • Tweaked the faces of the bongo package to enhance the distinctiveness of the constructs they style.

  • Adjusted the overall aesthetic of calendar faces in the interest of theme-wide consistency.

  • Aligned the visual metaphors of org-code with those of org-macro and org-verbatim, by ensuring that a subtle background is present behind the affected text, while the foreground conforms with the norms of the modus-themes-no-mixed-fonts customisation option.

  • Made quoted text in Info buffers look the same as org-verbatim and Markdown’s inline code.

  • Instructed the faces of info-colors to inherit from appropriate font-lock faces. This guarantees that everything works as intended with the various values of modus-themes-syntax.

  • Refined the language tag of Markdown fenced blocks so that it does attract unwarranted attention while delivering on its intended purpose.

  • Rendered explicit the slant of ace-window hints, guaranteeing that it does not inherit from the underlying text. Thanks to Nicolas De Jaeghere for the patch: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/merge_requests/27.

    [ Some more changes have been discussed, but those require tweaks to the upstream package. ]

  • Ensured that the org-tree-slide-header-overlay-face never draws an overline when the variable modus-themes-headings includes a relevant setting for heading level 1. Such as with the following example (all customisation options are documented in the themes’ manual):

    (setq modus-themes-headings ‘((1 . section) …))

  • Extended support for the new tab-line-tab-inactive-alternate face as that occurs in Emacs28 (current development target). It comes into effect when the variable tab-line-tab-face-functions includes a value of tab-line-tab-face-inactive-alternating.

Newly supported packages

Theme-related contributions to the wider community

Documentation updates

  • Wrote about the indirect support for the goggles package. I had helped write its faces, as was documented in the changelog for version 1.1.0 of the themes. Thanks to Manuel Uberti for bringing this to my attention in issue 158: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/158.

  • Explained that any changes to custom-theme-load-path and/or custom-theme-directory should be performed before the themes are loaded. Thanks to Adrian Manea for the feedback in issue 156: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/156.

  • Included the symbol bg-only in the modus-themes-diffs section of the manual. Thanks to user “iSeeU” for reporting the omission: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/154.

  • Expanded the manual’s entry on the semantics of the optional heading scale used by the themes (the variables modus-themes-scale-[1-5]). The values 1-4 apply to regular headings, with 4 being the largest on the scale. While modus-themes-scale-5 is reserved for special headers, such as Org #+title: or the Org Agenda’s structure. Recall that those variables only come into effect if the boolean variable modus-themes-scale-headings is set to a non-nil value (it is nil by default).

  • Made several changes to the modus-themes.org file in an effort to improve the accuracy of the generated Texinfo markup. Thanks to Glenn Morris and Richard Stallman for their valuable feedback in https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=45143.

  • Recorded a note in the manual on the intended colouration of backgrounds applied by mmm-mode. It explains what the constraints are from an accessibility standpoint and how users can configure things locally for more colourful, yet inaccessible, backgrounds. Thanks to Davor Rotim for the valuable feedback in issue 161: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/161.

  • Refined the manual’s note on prism.el, simplifying the code samples and clarifying the commentary.

  • Wrote indices for concepts, variables, functions, which are rendered in the Info manual.

  • Elaborated on the possibility—and relative merits—of implementing a theme-agnostic hook for advanced face configurations, as opposed to relying on modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook. Thanks to Daniel Mendler for the valuable feedback in issue 131: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/-/issues/131.

Miscellaneous

  • Rewrote the documentation string of the deftheme declaration of modus-operandi and modus-vivendi.

  • Provided links to the Info nodes that discuss each of the defcustom declarations.

  • Wrote doc strings for every custom face that the themes define.

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