fresh version = portable, downloaded from npp without any modifications and additional plugins
regular version = my portable version - highly customized and with additional plugins

Test was done with npp 7.8.6 (fresh) and 7.8.5 (regular).

only with a fresh version,
not with my regular version.

Can you clarify what this means?

Same actual version numbers of Notepad++, just a freshly extracted one versus the one you use day-by-day (where maybe you’ve upgraded configuration files manually bit by bit)?

With a fresh version I see the following:

disabled 	Tag
		Global override
		Default Style
		Indent guideline style
		Brace highlight style
		Bad brace colour
fg 		Current line background colour
fg 		Selected text colour
bg 		Caret colour
bg 		Edge colour
		Line number margin
		Fold
bg 		Fold active
		Fold margin
bg 		White space symbol
fg 		Smart HighLighting
fg 		Find Mark Style
fg 		Mark Style 1
fg 		Mark Style 2
fg 		Mark Style 3
fg 		Mark Style 4
fg 		Mark Style 5
fg 		Incremental highlight all
fg 		Tags match highlighting
fg 		Tags attribute
bg 		Active tab focused indicator
bg 		Active tab unfocused indicator
bg 		Active tab text
		Inactive tabs
bg 		URL hovered

Now, if I change to Bespin theme and back
all but “Mark Style 2” are enabled.

But if I do the same test with Choco theme,
then all of them, including Mark Style 2, will be enabled.

I haven’t tested with other themes.

I just redid the test of my previous post, with :

• A new fresh dezipped 32 bits portable version of N++ v7.8.5 in a folder, without any additional plugin other than default ones

• The new dezipped 32 bits portable version of N++ v7.8.6 in an other folder, that I haven’t downloaded, yet

And I confirm the previous behaviour, with the two colors available, both for v7.8.5 and v7.8.6

Mauy be, once more, it could be only related to my Win XP configuration ?

BTW, to get the initial colors and default behaviour of the Style Configurator, simply, stop and restart Notepad++

Best Regards,

guy038

Weird. When I use my normal v7.8.5 portable, it never shows Global Styles > Mark 1 with greyed foreground. If I take a fresh v7.8.5 portable, it does start with Mark 1 greyed, and if I follow your path to Bespin and back, it gets ungreyed when I’m back in default sylers.xml.

Weird.

I have not migrated to v7.8.6, yet. However, I noticed, since a very long time, the bug you mentioned, Peter, in the link below :

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/npp-usermanual/pull/81#issuecomment-614183652

To produce that issue, where both the background and foreground colors are available, where only one should be :

• Start Notepad++ ( I did this test with the release v7.8.5 )

• Run for instance, Settings > Style configurator

• Verify that the Default ( stylers.xml) theme is selected

• Select the Global Styles language

• And select, for instance, the Mark Style 1 style

• By default :

  • The foreground color is not available and its color is a light grey

  • The background color is available and its color is a light blue ( 0,255,255 )

• Now, switch from the Default ( stylers.xml) theme to the next Bespin theme

• And switch back, immediately, to the Default ( stylers.xml) theme

• Re-select the Mark Style 1 style

• This time :

  • As before, the background color is available and its color is a light blue ( 0,255,255 )

  • But, the foreground color is, now, available and its color is a dark red ( 204,0,0 ) ??!!

Best regards,

guy038

@Ekopalypse said:

I thought about creating a python script based on the stylers.xml to
bring all themes to the same level

Hopeful cross-link?: https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/52587

Thanks for that.

in case I wasn’t clear, thanks to everyone in this thread, who all contributed to the understanding.

and in the UDL

And in case you didn’t know, my experiments show that the “inherit from default” for UDL inherits from the Style Configurator > … >Default Style colors, not from the UDL > Default Style: > Styler. I made sure to document that.

And also found a bug in the UDL color box slash indicators.

So this discussion prompted two PRs and a bug report so far. Thanks. :-)

0 = default foreground and background
1 = default background
2 = default foreground

Thanks for that. I hadn’t known either about the right click or the colorStyle attribute values (neither was previously officially documented)

PR#81 for preferences docs include describing the right-click on the color box to get the same behavior.

Docs PR#82 includes describing that behavior in both the configuration files details and in the UDL (same attribute values in both).

@alan-kilborn said :

It might be the thing that finally kicks me over the hump to stop using the default theme. :-)

Me, too !

Best Regards

guy038

Well, you could always create the script anyway, and power-users could benefit by updating their individual copies of the theme files. It might be the thing that finally kicks me over the hump to stop using the default theme. :-)

But, yes, I guess I am not sure how to answer the licensing question.

If you open the themes you will see that they have different licenses
and/or copyright statements or non at all.
What needs to be done if there is no license or copyright statement but an author stated?
What needs to be done on GPL2?

If one wants to bring all to the same level, all should have the same license, correct?

thought about creating a python script based on the stylers.xml to
bring all themes to the same level

I like that idea!

but I’m unsure about the copyright stuff.

What does this mean?

if you set colorStyle=“1” as default, UDL would work better with themes.

No, as far as I understand,
0 = default foreground and background
1 = default background
2 = default foreground

It seems like maybe we need “theme maintainers” much like there seems to be “language/translation maintainers” and “UDL maintainers”.

I thought about creating a python script based on the stylers.xml to
bring all themes to the same level but I’m unsure about the copyright stuff.

Many of the themes are woefully out of date as they have not been updated as sintilla lexer variables change.

It seems like maybe we need “theme maintainers” much like there seems to be “language/translation maintainers” and “UDL maintainers”.

Obsidian theme. Maybe that is a popular one that I should check out.

Many of the themes are woefully out of date as they have not been updated as sintilla lexer variables change. I have been updating my obsidian by hand since I use it so much. It’s a dark theme but not dark black background .

Cheers.

@Michael-Vincent It even mentions the Obsidian theme. Maybe that is a popular one that I should check out.

I liked the poster’s original comment (later edited out for some reason): Who would have thought of right clicking boxes, amirite?

if you set colorStyle=“0” as default, UDL would work better with themes.

Did you mean to say:

if you set colorStyle=“1” as default, UDL would work better with themes.

Or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something? If that’s the case can you explain a bit more what you mean in this context?

@Michael-Vincent and @Ekopalypse : Thanks for the replies.

Thx @Alan-Kilborn @Michael-Vincent for bringing it up and discussing it.

I’m not sure, but I think it adds the colorStyle="1" to the style of the option you’re configuring. What does that mean?

For an example, I use Obsidian as my default style which has a dark background. Let’s say I’m configuring some element of a user defined language or maybe just text option or whatever your image above is for. If I use the bottom image - the one without cross hatching I will see grey text on a yellow background on an otherwise dark grey background supplied from Obsidian. If instead I use your top picture, the one with cross-hatching I will see grey text on the Obsidian background. Looking in the userdefined language XML, I’ll also now see the colorStyle="1" for that element.

So to me, it’s like kind of like cross-hatch means make the color transparent so the theme’s background color (whatever it may be) is the background for that “colour style”.

Does that make sense?

Cheers.