Color / theme-related bugs

[djmitche]

I'm glad to see @d2718nis filing some really well-written issues regarding terminal colors / themes.

There's actually a bunch of those issues in the topic:themes label. Maybe there are some more comprehensive changes to be made? For example, I see that a few of those relate to the calendar view -- perhaps there's an underlying bug causing all of those?

At any rate, I just wanted to celebrate the increased attention to this part of Taskwarrior!

[d2718nis]

I'm glad my input has been helpful! I'm currently working on a Rosé Pine inspired theme, which is why I'm noticing some of these details. At one point, I considered asking if you'd be interested in adding it to the repo, but it's still a work in progress.

Although C++ isn't my primary tool of choice, I'm comfortable working with it enough to be able to help with fixing things here and there. Regarding the calendar report, I wouldn't say there's a bug per se, but it seems like it's not utilizing the Color Rules. It could benefit from a bit of refactoring to take advantage of that dynamic approach.

[djmitche]

Regarding themes, that sounds fine to me! In wonder if we should think forward to some kind of showcase of themes, rather than just including a whole bunch with the distribution? The current list is a bit out of date and probably doesn't represent individual users' terminals very well (with differences in fonts, etc.). Maybe there's a way to demo themes on the command line?

Regarding calendar, that sounds like a good fix! Despite my growing list of commits to Chrome, I stand by the assertion that C++ is also not my primary tool of choice, but we all muddle along -- it's the C++ way.

[d2718nis]

if we should think forward to some kind of showcase of themes

There's xterm.js, which emulates a terminal environment in web/electron apps or even pipes to bash. Theoretically, it's possible to create a web app showcasing themes with adjustable settings including fonts. That said, it might not justify the time investment.

Maybe there's a way to demo themes on the command line?

This would be doable if the rc.include= override worked to include an entire theme file, but it doesn't (related issue, wontfix). Instead, it’s possible to load color settings one by one from the file, but I believe would require writing some logic. For now I use include $TW_THEME in my taskrc for dynamic theme switching while testing: the theme I’m building includes three variants — or six if you count both -16 and -256 color themes.

I’ve also considered building a standard testing tool, allowing consistent screenshots for themes in the repo README (useful if colors change later). It's still up in the air, though.

Regarding a separate theme context command, I feel it's easy enough to edit one line in the configuration file and test reports. However, a command like task showcase solarized-dark-256 that outputs a set of default reports using a given theme could be an elegant solution. Did you have something similar in mind, or other ideas?

Regarding calendar, that sounds like a good fix!

I'll see what I can do! There are a couple of other issues on my list as well, so I’ll add it to the mix.

[djmitche]

I didn't have anything in particular in mind. task showcase sounds cool, as does the addition of xterm.js in the TW docs. A bug for either or both of those would be great! (tw.org is the repo for the Taskwarrior docs)

[d2718nis]

I’ll see what I can do! I’ll definitely reach out here or in the related issues with any questions to make sure my ideas align with the project’s direction. Thanks!