In Dark Them the Java editor is very "colorful"

[BeckerWdf]

On this year's OCX I was involved in a discussion that the Java Editor is very colorful in the dark theme and that this is the reason why some people don't like it.

Currently the dark theme syntax colors for Java look like this (see the preview part):

In the light time a lot less "semantic coloring" is enabled. It looks like this:

The case is that JDT's dark theme css does enable a lot of the semantic colors check boxes like. e.g. in:

eclipse.jdt.ui/org.eclipse.jdt.ui/css/e4-dark_jdt_syntaxhighlighting.css

Line 48 in f9457be

'semanticHighlighting.abstractClass.enabled=true'

We could turn off some of the "semantic coloring" in the dark theme. I would propose something like this:

In this proposal semantic colors are used in the dark them for the same "semantic positions" as in the light theme.

What do you think ? I could provide a PR for that.

[BeckerWdf]

@HeikoKlare: This is the topic we talked about on OCX...

[iloveeclipse]

In this proposal semantic colors are used in the dark them for the same "semantic positions" as in the light theme.

Looks cleaner IMO. I don't use dark theme, but @trancexpress does. Simeon, what is your opinion?

[trancexpress]

From my POV its fine to reduce the colors in dark theme. It would be good to have some time to evaluate this, maybe a few weeks of working with the new colors, before its finalized.

I do think some of the semantic highlighting will have to stay, in the comparison from the description the local variables are colored only for light theme and with semantic highlighting.

[BeckerWdf]

aybe a few weeks of working with the new colors, before its finalized.

Sure that would be possible.

I do think some of the semantic highlighting will have to stay
Which one do you mean will have to stay?

[HeikoKlare]

This is the topic we talked about on OCX...

Thank you for taking care of this.

maybe a few weeks of working with the new colors, before its finalized.

It probably makes sense to prepare/merge a change like this for right after a release so that there is sufficient time for testing, experiencing and giving feedback on the new colors in I-Builds and milestones.

[BeckerWdf]

It probably makes sense to prepare/merge a change like this for right after a release so that there is sufficient time for testing, experiencing and giving feedback on the new colors in I-Builds and milestones.

Yes. I agree.

[nlisker]

As a long-time user of dark theme, I like the semantic coloring. Seeing if a method is inherited or declared in the class; if a type is an interface, enum, or a class; if it's a type parameter... just by seeing the color is something I learned to appreciate to the point where the suggest dark theme here looks like a rendering bug in the editor.

I suggest that the cleaner dark theme be shipped as an additional theme, even if it's made the default in new Eclipse versions (which is fine I think).

What I would say could be improved are the comment/docs colors. The gray on a dark background is not ideal.

[BeckerWdf]

I suggest that the cleaner dark theme be shipped as an additional theme, even if it's made the default in new Eclipse versions (which is fine I think).

So you propose we should have two dark themes? A colorful and a clean one? Due to the limited committer capacity I think we cannot effort this.

Note: You could still tweak the colors to your own needs. So make a cleaner dark theme look more colorful again.

[BeckerWdf]

What I would say could be improved are the comment/docs colors. The gray on a dark background is not ideal.

Wanna provide a PR for that or change the colors in your prefrences and provide the RGB values here?