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Bug 338797

Summary:	[preferences] Tooltip and info views background color clashes with editor colors in all editor types
Product:	[Tools] CDT	Reporter:	Angel <didlybom>
Component:	cdt-editor	Assignee:	Project Inbox <cdt-editor-inbox>
Status:	CLOSED DUPLICATE	QA Contact:	Anton Leherbauer <aleherb+eclipse>
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P3	CC:	cdtdoug, daniel_megert
Version:	8.0
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Windows 7
Whiteboard:

Description Angel

2011-03-03 07:46:28 EST

Build Identifier: 20100917-0705

Bug 41867, states that the "Tooltip and info views background color clashes with (the JDT) editor colors".

This bug has already been fixed. However the fix is only valid for the Java editors. The problem is that this issue also affects all other editors which are capable of showing a tooltip or context assist.

The ideal solution would be to move the "Declaration view background " setting that is currently found under the Java section on the "General->Appearance->Colors and Fonts" settings page, into the "Basic" section of that same page.

This bug is important for those of us who'd like to use a dark background theme, since those themes generally use a light foreground text, making it unreadable with the default tooltip background color, which tends to be light yellow.

This is an accessibility issue, since some people with poor eyesight tend to use dark background colors.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Open the preferences dialog and go to "General->Appearance->Colors and Fonts"
1. In the Basic section change the foreground text to white
2. Change the background text to black
3. Save the preferences
4. Open a C/C++ project and open a source file. Put the mouse over a function (for example) or any other item that will show a declaration tooltip.
5. When the hover appears, the text will be white (possibly even syntax highlighted), but the background text will be light yellow, making the text unreadable.

Comment 1 Dani Megert

2011-03-04 04:22:16 EST

The Platform does not know about code or declaration and hence won't provide those settings unless a new language toolkit layer is introduced at the UI level (aka LTK UI). Unfortunately there are no resources to work on such a layer and previous attempts to build it failed. Also, existing tools like CDT and WTP would have to commit to adopt it, otherwise it will be misleading to have preferences in the Platform and the real editor.

The only thing for now is that if CDT offers to change the fg colors in the hover it also has to offer corresponding bg colors preferences.

Comment 2 Dani Megert

2011-03-04 04:22:35 EST

Comment 3 Anton Leherbauer

2011-03-04 04:38:00 EST

There is a preference to change source hover background color on C/C++ > Editor since CDT 5.0.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 194312 ***

Comment 4 Angel

2011-03-04 07:30:42 EST

(In reply to comment #3)
> There is a preference to change source hover background color on C/C++ > Editor
> since CDT 5.0.
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 194312 ***

Awesome! I thought I had looked at all the editor color options but I missed that one. I also searched on google and stack overflow but I did not find any reference to this setting. Thank you a lot! This really makes Eclipse CDT usable with a dark background theme. As a bonus there is also a way to change the color of inactive code whose default color is too light as well.

The problem is that these settings are not found on the General\Appearance\Colors and Themes\C++ tab, so they are really hard to find. It'd be great if all these color settings were put together in that section of the preferences.

BTW, is there a way to change the color of the fold gutter as well?

Thank you again!

Comment 5 Anton Leherbauer

2011-03-04 08:48:38 EST

(In reply to comment #4)
> General\Appearance\Colors and Themes\C++ tab, so they are really hard to find.
> It'd be great if all these color settings were put together in that section of
> the preferences.

That's mostly for historic reasons.  In fact most color settings of Eclipse are _not_ found under the Colors and Fonts page.  See also bug 113112.

> BTW, is there a way to change the color of the fold gutter as well?

No, see bug 179625 and also bug 46103.