Re: [Groff] colorized man pages

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Clarke Echols <address@hidden> wrote:
 |Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

To me the problem is that i can't right now, even though i want.

 |With a world gone crazy over apps for this, apps for that,
 |and apps to manage apps (I'm guessing because I've never
 |owned a cell phone -- much less a smart phone) I see no

I don't know about that.  I have an «emergency» mobile phone.  It
is the second mobile phone i own – you know the story of the
extreme cruelty and environmental terror surrounding Coltan, and
that the Chinese even paid over world market price to calm down
the situation some ten years ago, _if_ i recall correctly.  So,
no.  I would still use my first, even older, Nokia, but the power
plug is dead, and no one seems to be able to repair it.  Though it
would very well be worth it.  Anyway i am now the owner of a used
Samsung, which, i admit, has a camera and, once unfolded,
a monitor.  I couldn't wait for the renaissance of the plain old
good stuff, unfortunately.

Granted that we possibly have seen a step forward regarding user
interfaces due to all this.  Then again, i think it is just a step
heading towards the vision that materialized in the Newton.
And that in turn is most likely (not only!) a real-life
translation of the brain transplant and do-by-thinking, which is
much, much older, i think.

 |need for it.

I can't agree.  Though i am pretty conservative regarding this
myself, most of the time – my vim, with which i stay practically
all the time, uses DarkRed (brown) for comments and
reverse,bold,red for warning messages.

I see the need because this software, not only the macros, don't
allow people to realize what they want.  And they seem to do so,
because whenever i start vim without my own config file, myself
starts laughing.  And it was like that already when i started
using vim, around Y2K.  And then colors offer the option to «break
out» of a situation: say you work twelve hours in a two-colour
editor session, it is, in my gut feeling, helpful to switch to
a different environment with a completely different visualization.
E.g., whereas i am completely fine with

  colour mono sum-dotmark   ft=bold,ft=reverse dot
  colour mono sum-header    ft=bold dot
  colour mono sum-thread    ft=bold dot
  colour mono view-header   ft=bold from,subject
  colour mono view-msginfo  ft=reverse,ft=underline ''
  colour mono view-partinfo ft=bold,ft=underline ''
  colour mono mle-position  ft=bold ''
  colour mono mle-prompt    ft=bold ''

on a monochrome display (the reverse is even too much), i also
like switching to

  colour iso sum-dotmark   ft=reverse,fg=blue dot
  colour iso sum-header    fg=blue dot
  colour iso sum-thread    fg=blue dot
  colour iso sum-thread    fg=magenta ''
  colour iso view-from_    fg=brown ''
  colour iso view-header   ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
  colour iso view-header   fg=red ''
  colour iso view-msginfo  fg=green ''
  colour iso view-partinfo fg=brown ''
  colour iso mle-position  ft=bold ''
  colour iso mle-prompt    fg=red ''

on a normal eight-colour display and really like, for quite some
weeks now, periodically switching over to

  colour 256 sum-dotmark   ft=bold,fg=13 dot
  colour 256 sum-header    fg=19 older
  colour 256 sum-header    fg=16,bg=219 dot
  colour 256 sum-header    fg=17 ''
  colour 256 sum-thread    ft=bold,fg=164,bg=219 dot
  colour 256 sum-thread    fg=172 ''
  colour 256 view-from_    fg=142 ''
  colour 256 view-header   ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
  colour 256 view-header   fg=124 to,cc
  colour 256 view-header   fg=203 reply-to,mail-followup-to,user-agent
  colour 256 view-header   fg=88 ''
  colour 256 view-msginfo  fg=green ''
  colour 256 view-partinfo fg=brown ''
  colour 256 mle-position  fg=202 ''
  colour 256 mle-prompt    fg=red ''

on a 256-colour display, even though that is, well, colourful.

 |But one factor nobody's mentioned is the fact that some
 |users are color blind, and the wrong combination of
 |colors can make a page very difficult to read, and that
 |is NOT what's needed.

I wouldn't enable this by default, then.  That is easy to do if
the software is a good one and the mechanism as such is backed by
good code.

I.e., the software should be capable to automatically detect
whether colours are applicable, choose the right terminal sequences
to realize what is desired, etc.  I don't really honour the latter
because i always have presupposed ISO 6429, i.e., ANSI
attribution, which originates in the 1970s.

 |I suggest leaving well enough alone.  Black text on a
 |white background has always worked well.  Strong
 |contrast (NEVER grey on white like so many "modern"
 |graphic designers seem to think is so pretty, even if
 |it makes text much harder to read) is still the best
 |way to put text on a screen or on paper either for
 |that matter.
 |
 |My engineering manager from decades ago said the best
 |designs are always the simplest, and have the least
 |need for adjustments.

I do appreciate clean and reduced designs myself.  But it depends,
and other people may have other desires.  If the software can
scale to the needs of those people, too, and does so automatically
and correctly, then it is a personal matter chosen freely, not
something imposed by outer restrictions.  And that is what
i desire, even though i know that most people don't survive
freedom mentally.  But the software has to move.

--steffen