Hideous Colors in Git Bash Shell
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The bluescreen isn't blue without a reason: You will find in a lot of books on graphic design that white on blue is one of the most readable color combinations. Black on yellow is another combination at the top of the list. I don't remember which of the two has the top score; it is a very close race. So it should come as no big surprise that traffic signs very often are black on yellow or white on blue. Pink on black may catch your attention more easily, but if the text content is the essential thing, then green on black is far better, much more readable. When I was still a student, I did all my programming green-on-black - we had no alternative (except for the card readers that were still available). A couple years later, black-on-white screens were introduced, but made no great success: Green-on-black, 25 lines of 80 chars, was the preferred choice until the arrival of VGA (and even a few years into the VGA era). In my first job, when PCs had just been introduced, one of the old guys pointed to the Tandberg 2215 terminals: "Take a good look at these! You won't see anything that can match them, ergonomically, for the next ten years, at least." --- It turned out that he was right. Screens got more functions, more colors, more resolution, but it took more than ten years before we got the same readability, and even today, screens have higher functionality, but are no better ergonomically. (That is of course strongly affected by how we choose to use these screens - today, poor ergonomics are essentially caused by poor choices, not by screen technology.)
Black on yellow is tops I believe, that's why so many road signs are those colors.
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The bluescreen isn't blue without a reason: You will find in a lot of books on graphic design that white on blue is one of the most readable color combinations. Black on yellow is another combination at the top of the list. I don't remember which of the two has the top score; it is a very close race. So it should come as no big surprise that traffic signs very often are black on yellow or white on blue. Pink on black may catch your attention more easily, but if the text content is the essential thing, then green on black is far better, much more readable. When I was still a student, I did all my programming green-on-black - we had no alternative (except for the card readers that were still available). A couple years later, black-on-white screens were introduced, but made no great success: Green-on-black, 25 lines of 80 chars, was the preferred choice until the arrival of VGA (and even a few years into the VGA era). In my first job, when PCs had just been introduced, one of the old guys pointed to the Tandberg 2215 terminals: "Take a good look at these! You won't see anything that can match them, ergonomically, for the next ten years, at least." --- It turned out that he was right. Screens got more functions, more colors, more resolution, but it took more than ten years before we got the same readability, and even today, screens have higher functionality, but are no better ergonomically. (That is of course strongly affected by how we choose to use these screens - today, poor ergonomics are essentially caused by poor choices, not by screen technology.)
That's been essentially my experience, too. Moreover, I cannot understand why anyone would pick a low-contrast color such as the stock blue color for text, when the default color scheme for most shells is black. For years, I have considered attempting to devise an automated color picker that takes the active background color into account when it selects a foreground color.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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This picture is a screen shot of the default Git Bash console on my Windows 10 desktop. Does anybody, even on the Git maintainers team, honestly expect people to like these colors? What were they thinking when they picked them? Please tell me they were on drugs, and can't be held responsible! :sigh:
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
It seems that project managers like to think that they know best, and screw the experts. I remember a senior manager telling the head of the Human Factors group on the Comanche helicopter that a double press world work, which meant that did not need a pressure sensitive screen. Of course what he did not seem to take into account was that the helicopter would be shaking and maneuvering, so the crew member would have to keep his eyes on the screen for both touches, instead of being able to take his eyes off once he had identified the control with his touch. Look at the crap Microsoft has given us like the ribbon and metro.
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It seems that project managers like to think that they know best, and screw the experts. I remember a senior manager telling the head of the Human Factors group on the Comanche helicopter that a double press world work, which meant that did not need a pressure sensitive screen. Of course what he did not seem to take into account was that the helicopter would be shaking and maneuvering, so the crew member would have to keep his eyes on the screen for both touches, instead of being able to take his eyes off once he had identified the control with his touch. Look at the crap Microsoft has given us like the ribbon and metro.
With regard to Metro, I agree that it's mostly a load of crap. However, after almost a decade of daily use, starting when I transitioned from Office 2002 (Office XP) to Office 2010, I've grown accustomed to the ribbon, and I have an idea about why they adopted it, and are extending it into other parts of Windows, etc. Somewhat to their credit, they seem to have learned from some of their mistakes, and are grudgingly adding support for the old, trustworthy Windows widgets to the Metro (UWP) kit.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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With regard to Metro, I agree that it's mostly a load of crap. However, after almost a decade of daily use, starting when I transitioned from Office 2002 (Office XP) to Office 2010, I've grown accustomed to the ribbon, and I have an idea about why they adopted it, and are extending it into other parts of Windows, etc. Somewhat to their credit, they seem to have learned from some of their mistakes, and are grudgingly adding support for the old, trustworthy Windows widgets to the Metro (UWP) kit.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
Their implementation in Office basically sucked for year since it did not allow you to change it, and it hide functionality. All they had to do was keep the menu, possibly using a scheme like used in several programs where you just had to hit the alt key, and give users the option of showing the menu all the time. They wanted to force people to use the Ribbon so they gave no option. Instead should have provided it as the standard option and allowed users to decide what they wanted instead of dictating. I too have gotten use to the Ribbon, but I am not sure it is that much better than toolbars. That the menu and toolbars have their place is shown in even Microsoft applications still using these older concepts, and you see menus all the time in Web apps. Nobody seems to have bothered with the Ribbon concept in web apps, which to me shows it was not all that great a concept.
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Their implementation in Office basically sucked for year since it did not allow you to change it, and it hide functionality. All they had to do was keep the menu, possibly using a scheme like used in several programs where you just had to hit the alt key, and give users the option of showing the menu all the time. They wanted to force people to use the Ribbon so they gave no option. Instead should have provided it as the standard option and allowed users to decide what they wanted instead of dictating. I too have gotten use to the Ribbon, but I am not sure it is that much better than toolbars. That the menu and toolbars have their place is shown in even Microsoft applications still using these older concepts, and you see menus all the time in Web apps. Nobody seems to have bothered with the Ribbon concept in web apps, which to me shows it was not all that great a concept.
You aren't likely to see it in Web apps because it significantly increases the download bandwidth required to support the page, since those graphics are much larger than any text menu. Even using something as efficient as SVG requires more bytes to transmit than the text, most of which must be transmitted anyway, to convey the URL behind each button. CDNs can mitigate the cost somewhat, but it requires a good bit of extra infrastructure to use them under HTPPS. Another reason you are unlikely to see ribbons in Web applications is that they consume far more screen real estate, which is contrary to Responsive design principles. In that regard, Google is pushing developers very strongly in that direction, and with good reason. Who knows, maybe we'll eventually get back to the simple predominantly text pages that dominated the early WWW.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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You aren't likely to see it in Web apps because it significantly increases the download bandwidth required to support the page, since those graphics are much larger than any text menu. Even using something as efficient as SVG requires more bytes to transmit than the text, most of which must be transmitted anyway, to convey the URL behind each button. CDNs can mitigate the cost somewhat, but it requires a good bit of extra infrastructure to use them under HTPPS. Another reason you are unlikely to see ribbons in Web applications is that they consume far more screen real estate, which is contrary to Responsive design principles. In that regard, Google is pushing developers very strongly in that direction, and with good reason. Who knows, maybe we'll eventually get back to the simple predominantly text pages that dominated the early WWW.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
The screen real estate is an issue too, especially on smaller displays. It was a gimmick that was put out before it was ready, and totally destroying the old interface was another stupid Microsoft move since it just made it difficult on people. In the meantime things that they could have fixed that would have truly improved the product are still not made. You can see things in Microsoft products that are basically over 20 years old.
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The screen real estate is an issue too, especially on smaller displays. It was a gimmick that was put out before it was ready, and totally destroying the old interface was another stupid Microsoft move since it just made it difficult on people. In the meantime things that they could have fixed that would have truly improved the product are still not made. You can see things in Microsoft products that are basically over 20 years old.
Yes; did you miss my mention of screen real estate in the 2nd paragraph? Microsoft is a Big Company, and it suffers from most of the problems common to Big Companies. One of the most pernicious of those is group hubris. That's how you get things like pandering to new users, even at the expense of throwing loyal customers that paid your way under the bus.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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Yes; did you miss my mention of screen real estate in the 2nd paragraph? Microsoft is a Big Company, and it suffers from most of the problems common to Big Companies. One of the most pernicious of those is group hubris. That's how you get things like pandering to new users, even at the expense of throwing loyal customers that paid your way under the bus.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
So far many of the products are not worth upgrading. Using office from 2 decades ago is not much different except the stupid ribbon made it impossible to get to features, a big down vote, and used a lot more real estate. Not sure I really thought that Windows 7 had to be replaced by windows 10
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So far many of the products are not worth upgrading. Using office from 2 decades ago is not much different except the stupid ribbon made it impossible to get to features, a big down vote, and used a lot more real estate. Not sure I really thought that Windows 7 had to be replaced by windows 10
It didn't, apart from keeping the revenue stream going.
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
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The bluescreen isn't blue without a reason: You will find in a lot of books on graphic design that white on blue is one of the most readable color combinations. Black on yellow is another combination at the top of the list. I don't remember which of the two has the top score; it is a very close race. So it should come as no big surprise that traffic signs very often are black on yellow or white on blue. Pink on black may catch your attention more easily, but if the text content is the essential thing, then green on black is far better, much more readable. When I was still a student, I did all my programming green-on-black - we had no alternative (except for the card readers that were still available). A couple years later, black-on-white screens were introduced, but made no great success: Green-on-black, 25 lines of 80 chars, was the preferred choice until the arrival of VGA (and even a few years into the VGA era). In my first job, when PCs had just been introduced, one of the old guys pointed to the Tandberg 2215 terminals: "Take a good look at these! You won't see anything that can match them, ergonomically, for the next ten years, at least." --- It turned out that he was right. Screens got more functions, more colors, more resolution, but it took more than ten years before we got the same readability, and even today, screens have higher functionality, but are no better ergonomically. (That is of course strongly affected by how we choose to use these screens - today, poor ergonomics are essentially caused by poor choices, not by screen technology.)
I love the blue screen. Illegible red text on that blue drives me up the wall. Nobody that coded that colour combo ever used it themselves, on Windows at least. It's not just Git Bash - the Posh Git extension that makes PowerShell a Git console has exactly the same horrific colour scheme.
"'Do what thou wilt...' is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its level; man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself." —Aleister Crowley
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This picture is a screen shot of the default Git Bash console on my Windows 10 desktop. Does anybody, even on the Git maintainers team, honestly expect people to like these colors? What were they thinking when they picked them? Please tell me they were on drugs, and can't be held responsible! :sigh:
David A. Gray Delivering Solutions for the Ages, One Problem at a Time Interpreting the Fundamental Principle of Tabular Reporting
I've found that the best color scheme is subjective at best. I recall one custom software project where I did everything the client asked for and he said, I don't know it just doesn't look right to me. He was an immigranr running his own business. I went to the library and looked up the country he was from and adjusted the color scheme to match the colors on their flag. He loved it and immediately went to get everyone around the office so he could braag on his new software and he wrote a check for me immediately, and the bank recognized and paid the check, too.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Reminds me of CGA.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
DBase IV
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH