Review: color consistency

[romainl]

Make sure that any given GUI color is always translated to the same 256c and 16c.

For example, LightMagenta, which doesn't exist in rgb.txt:

 co/evening.colortemplate|17 col 8| Color: lightmagenta  #ffa0a0           217               magenta
 co/shine.colortemplate|38 col 8| Color: LightMagenta#ff83fa        213            13

[lifepillar]

Or give different colors different names?

[romainl]

@lifepillar What do you mean?

The issue, here, is that a given gui color can have different 256c and/or 16c translations across colorschemes. This is an inconsistency issue that should be dealt with.

[lifepillar]

Isn't that two different colors (#ffa0a0 and #ff83fa) which have been assigned the same symbolic name (LightMagenta)? So, one possibility would be to rename one color.

[romainl]

No.

One symbolic name, LightMagenta, is used in two original colorschemes but it was erroneously translated to two different values in two different remakes. That's the issue to address… and there are other similar cases.

Don't worry if you don't get it, this issue is just a memo for later.

[romainl]

Below are the tables of conflicting Color: statements found in colortemplate/, grouped by name for readability.

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
blue	#0000ff	21	blue
blue	#0000ff	21	darkblue
blue	#0000ff	21	blue
blue	#0000ff	21	darkblue
blue	#0000ff	63	blue
blue	#0030ff	27	blue
blue	#005faf	25	blue
blue	#0087ff	33	blue
blue	#5fafff	75	blue

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
cyan	#00ffff	51	cyan
cyan	#5fffff	87	cyan
cyan	#90fff0	123	cyan

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
darkblue	#000087	18	darkblue
darkblue	#00008b	18	darkblue
darkblue	#00008b	20	darkblue
darkblue	#006faf	25	darkblue
darkblue	#0087af	31	darkblue

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
darkcyan	#008787	30	darkcyan
darkcyan	#008b8b	30	darkcyan
darkcyan	#008b8b	30	darkcyan
darkcyan	#008b8b	44	darkcyan

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
darkgray	#878787	102	darkgray
darkgrey	#767676	243	darkgrey
darkgrey	#a9a9a9	145	darkgrey
darkgrey	#a9a9a9	145	grey
darkgrey	#a9a9a9	248	grey

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
darkmag	#8b008b	90	darkmagenta
darkmagenta	#870087	90	darkmagenta
darkmagenta	#8b008b	164	darkmagenta
darkmagenta	#8b008b	90	darkmagenta

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
darkred	#870000	88	darkred
darkred	#8b0000	88	darkred
darkred	#d14a14	166	darkred

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
green	#00ff00	46	green
green	#90f020	118	green

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
gray	#bcbcbc	250	gray
grey	#808080	102	darkgrey
grey	#bebebe	248	grey
grey	#bebebe	250	grey
grey	#bebebe	250	gray
grey	#bebebe	250	grey

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
grey40	#666666	241	darkgray
grey40	#666666	241	darkgrey
grey40	#666666	242	grey
grey40	#666666	59	darkgrey
grey40	#666666	59	darkgrey

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
lightblue	#287eff	33	blue
lightblue	#add8e6	152	darkcyan
lightblue	#add8e6	153	blue
lightblue	#add8e6	153	lightblue

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
lightgrey	#c0c0c0	252	grey
lightgrey	#d3d3d3	252	gray
lightgrey	#dadada	253	grey

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
lightmag	#ff80ff	213	magenta
lightmagenta	#ffbbff	219	magenta

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
lightred	#ffa0a0	217	red
lightred	#ffafaf	217	red

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
magenta	#d787d7	176	magenta
magenta	#ff00ff	201	darkmagenta
magenta	#ff00ff	201	magenta
magenta	#ff80ff	201	darkmagenta

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
red	#d70000	160	red
red	#ff0000	196	darkred
red	#ff0000	196	red
red	#ff5f5f	203	red

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
seagreen	#2e8b57	121	darkgreen
seagreen	#2e8b57	29	darkgreen
seagreen	#2e8b57	29	darkgreen

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
slateblue	#6a5acd	62	blue
slateblue	#6a5acd	62	darkmagenta

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
steelblue	#4682b4	67	blue

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
violet	#8080ff	105	blue

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
white	#ffffff	15	white
white	#ffffff	231	white

Name	Hex	256c	16c	256c (fixed)	16c (fixed)
yellow	#ffdf00	220	yellow
yellow	#ffff00	226	darkyellow
yellow	#ffff00	226	yellow
yellow	#ffff60	227	yellow

[lifepillar]

The issue, here, is that a given gui color can have different 256c and/or 16c translations across colorschemes

In Colortemplate's documentation I wrote:

the "most similar" terminal color [to a hex color] may not necessarily be the "best looking" color, because the overall look&feel of a color scheme ultimately depends on the interactions among all the colors.

If you take blue as an example, #0000ff is approximated with (21,blue), (21,darkblue), and (63,blue) in different color schemes. That is perfectly fine, because what looks best in an approximated color scheme very much depends on how all the colors interact. Requiring that #0000ff be always approximated with the same 256/16c color would produce suboptimal results.

[romainl]

The problem with this line of thinking is that the author of the original colorscheme deliberately chose a specific color with a fixed, standardized value. People use those colorschemes in the real world and I think that the pros and cons of changes like the ones you allude to must be weighted carefully. The originals are messy and we can't seriously claim that our remakes are an improvement if they are even more messy than the originals.

Also, I think that we have more leeway in 16c land because of the inherent limitations of that color space. The constraints we deal with are much much difficult. In 256c, on the other hand, the technical limits/constraints are less stringent so we should strive to approximate the original as much as possible.

Moreover, this project is a chance to replace an awful mess with a working "system", we shouldn't let it slip.