Re: Colors for diff

[Bob Proulx]

Bruce Korb wrote:
> Matthew Woehlke  wrote:
> > Bruce Korb wrote:
> > > I think colorizing output by default is a HUGE MISTAKE!!!
> >
> > Hmm... cmake does it. That's about all I'm coming up with. git and ls don't
> > by default, although many distros by default alias ls to 'ls --color=auto'.
> 
> Perhaps the mistake is made by the distro's then.
> I guess myy rant should be directed to them.  :)  Sorry. :(

I don't know.  When I read your response I was right there with you! :-)
I also don't like colorization by default.  It assumes too much about
the world.  White on black, black on white, monochrome, etc.

But if there is going to be colorization by default then there are
definitely wrong ways to do it.  A wrong way would be something that
the user must add a layer to turn it off.  Aliasing in system
configuration (e.g. /etc/profile) is wrong because then the user needs
to add configuration to turn it off.  And this configuration would
need to be distro specific.  I hate needing to maintain a long list of
system specific fixes.

A better way is the way Debian does it which is to put it in the
default /etc/skel/ file (e.g. ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bashrc) such that
disabling it removes configuration.  When I install my personalized
dot files I get the configuration that I want without needing to
maintain fixes for broken system configuration.

Bob