Thank you, guys. The confusion, it appears, was entirely mine. I'll
spare you my various excuses; one of the many clues that should have
alerted me to the error of my ways was in sp_titletextbg! :) I do
wish, however, that there had been some "safe" way to put text on a
stippled or striped background in other cases too. But thats ok.
Im very glad of the palette system as it is. It has stood up well to
the test of time!
Per
On 24/08/2018 22:00, Dilwyn Jones via Ql-Users wrote:
I tended to avoid "strip" colours in my WMAN2 programs and preferred
to think of the middleground as a second INK colour, either for
headings or for "sub-texts" such as prompts or warnings above menus.
I never really knew if I was using it correctly (guess I was for
title bars), but never really thought to query it at the time
despite writing articles about it in QL Toady, Quanta, etc.
Dilwyn
-----Original Message----- From: Marcel Kilgus via Ql-Users
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2018 4:37 PM
To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com
Cc: Marcel Kilgus
Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] colour confusion
OK, I have a little bit more time and net here now. When I defined
the colours 15 or so years ago I was asking the community for
feedback, but I think most people didn‘t even quite understand the
purpose yet, so there weren‘t really any changes to it.
I defined the colours based on three things, the Windows 95 colour
palette, the WMAN window structures and the colours needed to
successfully port QPAC2 to them. Only one or two additions were made
for other software like QD (which still has the editor colours in
its own config block as I felt these were not generic enough in usage).
With QPAC2 it was necessary to have a foreground colour and one
other font colour, for which I created the name „middle ground“.
This was part joke and part lack of a better name. Plus, nobody
complained ;)
I never realized this could be interpreted as STRIP colour,
especially as I actually defined one „STRIP“ colour, too: „Title
text background“. I don‘t have my laptop with me, but I don‘t think
there is the concept of a „STRIP“ colour in the data structures, so
I probably never really considered it. Sorry for the confusion!
I was hoping that some day there would be a style guide, but
adoption of the system palette was slow and finally I forgot about
it. Still, many applications these days use them, so I consider them
a success nonetheless.
One more thing: they are defined somewhat conservatively because if
you give too many options thing get even more messy. I know Per was
always on the rather bleeding edge of WMAN UI development so
probably struggled a lot more with them than anybody who simply
duplicated the QJump style.
Cheers, Marcel
Am 24.08.2018 um 14:45 schrieb pjwitte via Ql-Users
<ql-users@lists.q-v-d.com>:
There appears to be some inconsistency in the application of colour
components of palettes by different software authors. Im referring
in particular to the use of "middle ground". Correct me if Im
wrong, but I assumed this option was reserved for use as the strip
colour, ie the colour of the text background. Some authors do it
this way, while others use the background (ie normally the paper
colour) as text background. This can make texts like titles, info
texts, and error messages unreadable, depending on the palettes used.
While it is possible to devise palettes that will work in either
case, it sort of cramps one's style a bit. And the whole motivation
for going to the trouble of devising palettes and systems, one
presumes, is to make things simpler, more consistent - less
mickymouse.
Unless it is already too late (ie the bug has become convention) it
would be great if the next iteration of relevant documentation
could firm up the convention that:
background is equivalent to PAPER colour,
middle ground is equivalent to STRIP colour, and
foreground is equivalent to INK colour,
if that is indeed the intention.
Perhaps authors too, would try keep this in mind when releasing
updates?
Per
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