RE: propose adding Icicles to Emacs

[Drew Adams]

> The current code handles all cases acceptably.  It sounds like your
> method is better in most cases, but much worse in a few cases.
> As it is, we cannot use it.
> ...
> However, maybe someone can turn your feature into a good one by adding
> a special case check for the cases that look bad with your code, and
> treat them differently.  The result could be a feature that is always
> acceptable, while still having the same benefits in the usual case.
> That would be something we could install.

Uh, just how would you determine "the cases that look bad"? How would the
code tell whether a particular somewhat-light yellow foreground looks bad
against a not-too-dark cyan background that the user might happen to use for
*Completions*?

Or would you just treat the "simple" cases where the face foreground and
background (or nil for either) are _identical_ to the current *Completions*
foreground and background (or nil for either)? Juri's point was not only
that `border' showed black on black, but also that some face names were
difficult to read because of the particular combination with the
*Completions* foreground or background.

Trying to do what you suggest is, IMO, (1) a nightmare to try to do right
and (2) likely to be an unsuccessful compromise in any case. Not to mention
that this kind of thing depends on one's eyesight, the ambient room
lighting, monitor qualities, personal tolerances and preferences, the moon
phase, presence or absence of related fatwahs,... Users will cry out for
ways to customize this, and the result of trying to allow for that will
likely be a mess too. Sorry to be negative, but I suspect that that way lies
madness.

Stefan's suggestion of a separate swatch is much better, IMO. I've
implemented that - see my other mail on this.