Colored output of some apps absolutely requires a dark or black background (e.g. java-config outputs yellow or white even when terminal background is white) whereas others absolutely require a light or white background (e.g. the dark blue of # comments in the vi color scheme for system files). Even the not-so-dark blue of the username in the shell prompt can be hard to read on a black background, depending on the terminal font. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. java-config --list-available-vms 2. vi /etc/env.d/java/* Actual Results: On a terminal with a white background, I couldn't read the output of java-config at all. I switched to a black background to be able to read that, and then tried to edit /etc/env.d/java/20sun-jdk-1.4.1.02, but then most of that was unreadable on the black background so I had to switch back. A typical "grrrr" issue :) Expected Results: Should have done one of these: - assume a particular background color (either white or black) and consistently use a color scheme that behaves well with that background color - limit the color use to colors that will behave well on *either* a light or a dark background - modify those utilities that output color to detect the terminal background color and choose the colors of their output accordingly. Portage 2.0.48 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r1) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.20-gentoo-r4 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.linux.is/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu/ http: //www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/env.d" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" USE="x86 oss 3dnow apm avi crypt cups encode gif jpeg libg++ mikmod mmx mpeg ncurses nls pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xmms xv zlib directfb gdbm berkdb slang readline arts tetex aalib nas svga ggi tcltk java guile mysql X sdl gpm tcpd pam libwww ssl perl python esd imlib oggvorbis gnome gtk qt kde motif opengl mozilla apache2" COMPILER="gcc3" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fforce-addr -funroll-loops -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-opt -falign-functions=4" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fforce-addr -funroll-loops -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-opt -falign-functions=4" ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" MAKEOPTS="-j2" AUTOCLEAN="yes" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" FEATURES="sandbox ccache"
We are in the middle of rewriting java-config in python, these issues should (at least on the java-config end) disappear then.
use java-config -n to turn off colors
