UI rework including light and dark themes

[Tiberius-Sicae]

EDDI UI/UX Modernisation & Theme Selector Change Log

This document details all the modifications, enhancements, and bug fixes introduced during the UI/UX overhaul of the Elite Dangerous Data Interface (EDDI) desktop application.

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1. Visual Theme Modernisation

• Centralised Design System: Added three core styling dictionaries to clean up legacy styles:
  • ThemeLight.xaml: Establishes premium Fluent Light Mode tokens (typography, margins, borders, and harmonious backgrounds).
  • ThemeDark.xaml: Provides identical dark mode token counterparts to support visual comfort.
  • ThemeModern.xaml: Defines global Fluent-style control templates with rounded corners (CornerRadius="4"), hover/focused transitions, and consistent padding.
• Control Template Overhauls: Modernised primary layout elements across the app:
  • Window: Cleaned up default visual chrome.
  • Buttons: Rounded styling with responsive click/hover states.
  • TextBoxes & ComboBoxes: Added active bottom accent lines and rounded borders on focus.
  • TabControl & TabItem: Shifted to a flat header list layout with active accent lines.
  • CheckBox & RadioButton: Designed custom vector-based Fluent marks that replace the default Win98-style controls.

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2. Dynamic Accent and Theme Tracking

• Automated Theme Detection: Added ThemeManager.cs to query the Windows registry (AppsUseLightTheme) and automatically detect whether a light or dark theme is active.
• Accent Colour Integration: Extracted the user's personal Windows Colourisation/Accent settings from the registry or system glass parameters, dynamically updating PrimaryBrandBrush in memory.
• Runtime Event Binding: Hooked into Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.UserPreferenceChanged to apply theme and accent shifts instantly in real-time without requiring application restarts.

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3. Localised User-Selectable Theme Dropdown

• Layout Addition: Added the theme selector dropdown (chooseThemeDropDown) to the topmost EDDI configuration tab directly below the language selector.
• String Localisation: Added resource keys (choose_theme_label, choose_theme_label_va, theme_system, theme_light, theme_dark) to Resources.resx and exposed them strongly-typed via Resources.Designer.cs.
• ThemeDef Model: Introduced a ThemeDef mapping structure in MainWindow.xaml.cs to pair config identifiers (System, Light, Dark) with their localised text descriptions, ensuring proper display and language-independent persistence.

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4. AvalonEdit Script Editor High-Contrast Theme

• Syntax Highlighting: Refactored the syntax colouring rules in CottleHighlighting.cs to dynamically swap high-contrast code colouring depending on the active theme.
• Palette Choices: Configured a modern VS Code / Antigravity styled theme for dark mode:
  • Spoken Text / Plain Body: Light Gray (#D4D4D4) for high contrast on #262626 background.
  • Keywords: Vibrant Blue (#569CD6).
  • Strings / Quotes: Peach/Terracotta (#CE9178) - deuteranopia/protanopia friendly.
  • Functions (Built-in & Custom): Warm Gold (#DCDCAA) and Cyan (#4FC1FF).
  • Literals & Properties: Light Olive (#B5CEA8) and Soft Cyan (#9CDCFE).
  • Comments: Highly readable light green (#6A9955).

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5. Major UI Bug Fixes

• ComboBox Internal Code Display: Added missing SelectionBoxItemTemplateSelector binding in the ComboBox's selected item ContentPresenter in ThemeModern.xaml. This forces the selection box to display the human-readable string (via DisplayMemberPath) instead of the internal code/class type names.
• Material Monitor Grade Icons: Replaced hardcoded black vectors in ConfigurationWindow.xaml grade drawings with the dynamic TextPrimaryBrush resource, making the icons fully readable in both dark and light modes.
• Speech Responder Styles: Updated the row-level Priority ComboBox and Reset Button inline styles in SpeechResponder/ConfigurationWindow.xaml to use BasedOn style inheritance, preventing them from falling back to default legacy Windows Aero styling.

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6. Build and Installer Enhancements

• Absolute Path Compilers: Updated build-installer.cmd to utilise absolute path mappings for Inno Setup 6 (ISCC.exe) and 7-Zip (7z.exe), preventing environment variable path failures.

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7. Unified Responders Layout

• Unified Responders Tab: Grouped the external network responders (EDDN, EDSM, and Inara) into a clean, unified sub-tab layout under a single top-level "Responders" tab.
• Layout Navigation: Sorted the remaining tabs (including Text-to-Speech) alphabetically alongside monitors for a clean, intuitive layout, placing Text-to-Speech directly underneath Speech Responder.

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