Family Historian 7: Still no dark mode?
Mar 27, 2023 4:40:49 GMT -8
Post by Uncle Buddy on Mar 27, 2023 4:40:49 GMT -8
Joining this forum is easy, so if you know how to make the entire Family Historian 7 GUI a dark theme, please post the method here. In rebuttal of these friendly words:
In 2023 there is no excuse for any application to not allow the user an easy way to change its color theme. When I started writing Treebard GPS full-time in 2018, I knew nothing about Tkinter and almost nothing about Python, but creating a simple way for users to define their own color schemes was one of the first features that I completed. I had to, because of my eyesight; I had no choice. Since that first version, the Treebard colorizer has undergone several reincarnations.
Even Notepad++ has finally gotten rid of the glaring bright menu bar in its recent version(s). For a long time they had themes, but only relatively recently took control of the menu bar color away from Windows themes.
What is it about staring into bare light bulbs that is supposed to be no big deal?
I was ready to fork over the cash for an upgrade to my copy of Family Historian, but to my horror, the New Features list included nothing on the topic of dark mode or custom colors. Some colors can be customized, tediously, but customizing some colors is not what I'm talking about. In Treebard GPS there are only four colors, and the user chooses all four of them (or uses built-in color schemes, which can be sampled and changed in seconds.)
I looked at both of FH's forums and there are people complaining in both places that the application is inaccessible to people with certain eye conditions. Me for example. I see double when my eyes get tired, and my eyes get tired very fast from staring at bare lightbulbs or blaring white or whitish computer screens. Or yellow. Etc. FH does have a supposed option to change the color theme from default to high contrast. When making this change, so little changes that the feature might as well not exist at all.
Some will say that it's possible to get stand-alone apps to change colors in Windows... good luck with that. Chances are that a Windows-wide setting that makes one app look right will make another app unusable. This is why I say that each app should have its own color scheme functionality. The answer is not going to be found from Microsoft, where the specialty is cutting functionalities off, not adding them. Here are the instructions from Microsoft, so if you have a PhD in computer science, enjoy this...
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/desktop/modernize/apply-windows-themes
I include the above link only as a sort of cynical joke. Please don't waste your time.
On a positive note, I have already installed Linux Mint on my computer in a virtual machine using VMWare. First I tried VirtualBox but their guest tools which allow full-screen use and copy/paste/drag of documents between Linux and Windows... extremely buggy with the reputation of having always been that way. VMWare's similar tools work perfectly. So, for many reasons I won't list here, I am gradually moving away from my lifelong Windows dependency and happy to announce that Linux is accessible and ready to be learned by the growing horde of Windows users who wish there was an alternative. Linux in VMWare is the way to go.
In 2023 there is no excuse for any application to not allow the user an easy way to change its color theme. When I started writing Treebard GPS full-time in 2018, I knew nothing about Tkinter and almost nothing about Python, but creating a simple way for users to define their own color schemes was one of the first features that I completed. I had to, because of my eyesight; I had no choice. Since that first version, the Treebard colorizer has undergone several reincarnations.
Even Notepad++ has finally gotten rid of the glaring bright menu bar in its recent version(s). For a long time they had themes, but only relatively recently took control of the menu bar color away from Windows themes.
What is it about staring into bare light bulbs that is supposed to be no big deal?
I was ready to fork over the cash for an upgrade to my copy of Family Historian, but to my horror, the New Features list included nothing on the topic of dark mode or custom colors. Some colors can be customized, tediously, but customizing some colors is not what I'm talking about. In Treebard GPS there are only four colors, and the user chooses all four of them (or uses built-in color schemes, which can be sampled and changed in seconds.)
I looked at both of FH's forums and there are people complaining in both places that the application is inaccessible to people with certain eye conditions. Me for example. I see double when my eyes get tired, and my eyes get tired very fast from staring at bare lightbulbs or blaring white or whitish computer screens. Or yellow. Etc. FH does have a supposed option to change the color theme from default to high contrast. When making this change, so little changes that the feature might as well not exist at all.
Some will say that it's possible to get stand-alone apps to change colors in Windows... good luck with that. Chances are that a Windows-wide setting that makes one app look right will make another app unusable. This is why I say that each app should have its own color scheme functionality. The answer is not going to be found from Microsoft, where the specialty is cutting functionalities off, not adding them. Here are the instructions from Microsoft, so if you have a PhD in computer science, enjoy this...
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/desktop/modernize/apply-windows-themes
I include the above link only as a sort of cynical joke. Please don't waste your time.
On a positive note, I have already installed Linux Mint on my computer in a virtual machine using VMWare. First I tried VirtualBox but their guest tools which allow full-screen use and copy/paste/drag of documents between Linux and Windows... extremely buggy with the reputation of having always been that way. VMWare's similar tools work perfectly. So, for many reasons I won't list here, I am gradually moving away from my lifelong Windows dependency and happy to announce that Linux is accessible and ready to be learned by the growing horde of Windows users who wish there was an alternative. Linux in VMWare is the way to go.