Subject: Re: report default colors

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2022 10:32:24 +0900

James Lowden <[email-masked]> writes:

> I can get a list of all keys from "git help", which is something.
> But I'm left guessing at which keys control the text on the screen
> for a given command, and what color they are.
>
> In the instant case, "git push" was rejected, and the reason is
> impossible to read because it's in yellow on a light blue
> background.

Interesting.  I wonder where you are getting the yellow from.  The
hardcoded default comes from these in builtin/push.c

    static int push_use_color = -1;
    static char push_colors[][COLOR_MAXLEN] = {
            GIT_COLOR_RESET,
            GIT_COLOR_RED,	/* ERROR */
    };

    enum color_push {
            PUSH_COLOR_RESET = 0,
            PUSH_COLOR_ERROR = 1
    };

and the push_colors[PUSH_COLOR_ERROR][] is used here

	...
	if (err != 0) {
		fprintf(stderr, "%s", push_get_color(PUSH_COLOR_ERROR));
		error(_("failed to push some refs to '%s'"), anon_url);
		fprintf(stderr, "%s", push_get_color(PUSH_COLOR_RESET));
	}

so I wouldn't be surprised if you see this painted in red, but yellow?

In any case, there are two things _we_ should do on our end.

One obviously is to document the default when we document
configurables (e.g. color.push.error only says "Use customized color
for push errors", but it should say by default it uses red).

The other is about this part:

> ...  My workaround
> is to guess what it probably says (probably it says I need to
> pull).  When that doesn't work, I copy and paste the text into
> emacs.

No color is well recognizable on all backgrounds, and people use
different background, so we need to make sure that our coding
guidelines tell our developers (1) not to use unusual colors for
common things, and/or (2) make both foreground and background
configurable.

(1) is because if we stick to small number of common colors, it
would make it easier for users to find and use a single background
that works well with these colors.

(2) is because there will be some users who find whatever common
default colors we use not working for them.  They may need higher
contrast between background and foreground, and allowing both be
tweakable would make it easier for them to find the color pairs that
work well.

Thanks.