Re: TurtoisMerge - Suggestions for Color Use

Vidar Hasfjord wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for great development tools!
>
> In the course of managing many branches I've had to do a lot of merging and
> conflict resolution lately. While TurtoiseMerge is excellent for this
> (kudos!), I find its default colours a little messy. Unfortunately all
> colours are not configurable. So here are some suggestions for improvement:
>
> 1. TurtoiseMerge now uses some colour variations that are not configurable.
> Make all colour use configurable.

Which ones can't you configure? I can't find any color that's not
configurable, but maybe it's just me that can't find it.

> 2. Use simpler and more readable default colours based on global
> understanding of green, yellow and red as signalling colours (ok, warning,
> stop/danger):
>
> - Use the same colours in all three panes. This is less confusing.

We already use the same colours. Of course, 'conflicted' state colors
only are shown in the bottom pane because those are not possible in two
pane view.

> - All the colours should be pale. This is more easily readable with black
> text. Dark colours are also easily confused with selected lines.

Depending on the monitor one uses we discovered that you can only use a
very limited amount of pale colors so they're still 'different' for the
user. That's why some default colors are not as pale as you might want to.

> - Use a pale green background for both added and deleted lines. Deleted
> lines are clearly distinguishable by the strikeout font.

Many people don't like the strikeout and have it disabled in the settings.

> - Use a pale red background for conflicted lines in all three panes.

Since a conflict is serious, having that colour too pale might lead the
user to miss the conflict - it would be too close to the red colour of
deleted lines.

> - Use a pale yellow background for resolved lines in all three panes.

I've now added a new line state and colour (light green) for 'conflict
resolved' lines.

> - Use a faint blue-ish white for empty lines. These are usually not
> significant to the merge/conflict resolution (the user can change it for in
> those rare cases it is significant).

I don't understand.
If the lines are identical, the background is white anyway.
If the lines are *not* identical, then an empty line means that
something got removed. And that IMHO *is* significant for conflict
resolution?

> - Use a patterned background (e.g. a cross-hatch or, a little more fancy,
> italic question marks) for unresolved lines in the bottom pane, and don't
> put any text on these lines. Any text message may be confused with actual
> text in the file.

Done in revision 10547.

> Again, thanks for TurtoiseSVN!

It's actually TortoiseSVN, not TurtoiseSVN :)

Stefan

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