Re: bad UI defaults

[Miles Bader]

Dave Love <address@hidden> writes:
> > >  * The `mode-line-inactive' face is bright compared with
> > >    `mode-line', That means that with two windows -- my most common
> > >    configuration -- the eye is drawn to the wrong window.
> > 
> > I disagree completely;
> 
> OK, `my eye', but I'm surprised if the cognitive effect is unique to me.

Probably not, but you're the first I've heard mention it.

> > what makes something stand out is not lightness-versus-darkness, but
> > _contrast_ -- the lighter inactive mode-line face is closer to the
> > default background color of white, and thus stands out less than the
> > darker active mode-line.
> 
> Well, the inactive mode line contrasts with the rest of the
> frameworkery and has greater contrast within it.

The `rest of the frameworkery'?

Do you mean the scrollbar?  The X window-manager's frame?

I'd think the contrast with the actual text window is by far the most
important, since 99% of the mode-line is adjacent to the text buffer.

> (I should have said with sawfish under X.)

I use sawfish too; I presume it's the theme you use which is
significant, not the wm...

Perhaps you could send a snapshot of a very small emacs window so that
we could see how it looks in your setup?

-Miles
-- 
"I distrust a research person who is always obviously busy on a task."
   --Robert Frosch, VP, GM Research