Re: default bg color on ttys

[Robert J. Chassell]

   > I was trying to avoid adding command-line options.

Miles wrote:

   I'm personally fond of my earlier suggestion of `-bg light' or `-bg dark'
   (think of "light"/"dark" as being special colors that are the same as
   unspecified_bg, but with different interpretation by the
   background-mode-setting apparatus)...

Miles is right -- these are easy to remember and cover most cases.

We should offer them.


Note these do not cover all cases.  Here are notes from my .emacs file:

    ;; Get readable fonts
    ;; As Lars says, 5 Dec 95: "The current Gnus default colors work on most
    ;; setups, although they are completely unusable on setups (like
    ;; yours) that use a "medium" background. ... Perhaps there should be
    ;; a general Emacs way of specifying a "color scheme" based on the
    ;; current background color?"
    ;; ('light makes headers totally unreadable)
    (setq gnus-background-mode 'dark)

I do not advocate a third command line alternative to light and dark:
initial command line options should be limited.

But please provide good documentation for the person who installs a
.emacs file, such as:

    (set-background-mode 'dark)
    (set-background-mode 'medium-background)
    (set-background-mode 'light)

Most people will use either 'dark or 'light (and will, of course,
forget the apostrophe the first time they try either ....).

But some will find  'medium-background a good alternative.

Thanks

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                  address@hidden
    Rattlesnake Enterprises             http://www.rattlesnake.com