Modus themes 2.6.0 for GNU Emacs

I just published the latest stable release of the Modus themes. The change log entry is reproduced below. For any questions, feel welcome to contact me.

I will now prepare the patch for emacs.git which will then trickle down to GNU ELPA (the modus-themes is a :core package). Thank you for your patience!

2.6.0

Changes to supported faces or face groups

Made the font-lock-warning-face adapt to comments. This changes the face from a yellow to a red hue when the user adds a value to modus-themes-syntax which includes yellow-comments property. Before, this face was indistinguishable from yellow comments due to a regression in version 2.5.0 of the themes. Thanks to Augusto Stoffel and Manuel Uberti for their feedback on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/modus-themes/%3C87r11k1c22.fsf%40gmail.com%3E.
Applied a consistent foreground color (a not-so-intense yellow hue) to the org-checkbox and markdown-gfm-checkbox-face. The change comes from the discussion on the mailing list where it became apparent that a bit of colour is needed for such constructs: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/modus-themes/%3Cm2fsi9cja4.fsf%40me.com%3E.

Thanks to Rudolf Adamkovič, Christian Tietze, and Karthik Chikmagalur for their participation.
Added support for the mu4e-related-face. Thanks to Simon Pugnet for the feedback on the mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/modus-themes/%3C87edxhvqwp.fsf@polaris64.net%3E.
Included support for the consult-preview-insertion face. There are two reasons for adding this:
1. It decouples it from the region face, which means that the user option modus-themes-region no longer has an unintended effect on it.
2. It makes it look consistent with the rectangle-preview face (see it in action with C-x SPC, move point down a few lines, type C-t and then insert some text). I feel these sort of previews need to look the same, though I don’t have a strong attachment to the style now in use.

Removed support for the ‘solaire’ package

The solaire-mode package dims the background of what it considers ancillary “UI” buffers, such as the minibuffer and Dired buffers. The Modus themes used to support Solaire on the premise that the user was (i) opting in to it, (ii) understood why certain buffers were more gray, and (iii) knew what other adjustments had to be made to prevent broken visuals (e.g. the default style of the modus-themes-completions uses a subtle gray background for the selection, which with Solaire becomes practically invisible).

However, the assumption that users opt in to this feature does not always hold true. There are cases where it is enabled by default such as in the popular Doom Emacs configuration. Thus, the unsuspecting user who loads modus-operandi or modus-vivendi without the requisite customizations is getting a sub-par experience; an experience that we did not intend and cannot genuinely fix.

[ Relevant reading about “The case of git-gutter, the modus-themes, and Doom Emacs”: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-08-04-doom-git-gutter-modus-themes/ ]

Because the Modus themes are meant to work everywhere, we cannot make an exception for Doom Emacs and/or Solaire users. Furthermore, we shall not introduce hacks, such as by adding a check in all relevant faces to be adjusted based on Solaire or whatever other package. Hacks of this sort are unsustainable and penalize the entire userbase. Besides, the themes are built into Emacs and we must keep their standard high.

The fundamental constraint with Solaire is that Emacs does not have a real distinction between “content” and “UI” buffers. For themes to work with Solaire, they need to be designed around that package. Such is an arrangement that compromises on our accessibility standards and/or hinders our efforts to provide the best possible experience while using the Modus themes.

As such, solaire-mode is not—and will not be—supported by the Modus themes (or any other of my themes, for that matter). Users who want it must style the faces manually. Below is some sample code, based on what we cover at length in the manual:

(defun my-modus-themes-custom-faces ()
  (modus-themes-with-colors
    (custom-set-faces
     `(solaire-default-face ((,class :inherit default :background ,bg-alt :foreground ,fg-dim)))
     `(solaire-line-number-face ((,class :inherit solaire-default-face :foreground ,fg-unfocused)))
     `(solaire-hl-line-face ((,class :background ,bg-active)))
     `(solaire-org-hide-face ((,class :background ,bg-alt :foreground ,bg-alt))))))

(add-hook 'modus-themes-after-load-theme-hook #'my-modus-themes-custom-faces)

Changes to the manual

Added a missing parenthesis to a sample code block. Thanks to Paul David for the contribution in pull request 39 on the GitHub mirror: https://github.com/protesilaos/modus-themes/pull/39.
Clarified the wording of individual statements pertaining to the need of reloading a theme for changes to user options to become effective.