wid-edit buttons

changed the description

Hello @minad and thanks for reporting this!

Now I wonder if we should simply apply the styling of the box buttons to all the widget buttons for greater coherence and a prettier interface. This way all packages which use widget.el/wid-edit.el directly will get improved looks.

I am aware of this discrepancy. The reason I did not make any change is because I have not seen the generic widget buttons out in the wild and was concerned that something may not look right if not properly tested. The only place where I have seen those buttons is the Notmuch "hello" buffer.

Unfortunately, we cannot overwrite the prefixes/suffixes in the theme, but these adjustments could be part of the manual.

Yes, this is the core problem. Here is Notmuch which wraps the button in square brackets.

I will update the manual.

I am aware of this discrepancy. The reason I did not make any change is because I have not seen the generic widget buttons out in the wild and was concerned that something may not look right if not properly tested. The only place where I have seen those buttons is the Notmuch "hello" buffer.

Yes, I am aware of the notmuch buttons. I think with a remark in the manual regarding the button prefix and suffix we should be alright. The widget-example I've tested above shows that the wid-edit library is intended to be used just like the cus-edit library and I don't see a reason to keep these different looks for button types around. I think we should try to unify the looks. Maybe the default settings of wid-edit should be adjusted anyway in the long term to remove the square brackets? Usually such changes tend to take a long time.

Another idea: Would it be possible to detect on the level of the theme if the button prefix is a blank string ("" or " ") and depending on that use different looks? For blank strings use the box button style.

Another idea: Would it be possible to detect on the level of the theme if the button prefix is a blank string ("" or " ") and depending on that use different looks? For blank strings use the box button style.

We can change the variables to our desired value. I generally try not to touch user options, but this may be justified. The relevant diff:

 modus-themes.el | 9 +++++++--
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/modus-themes.el b/modus-themes.el
index c23d119..89fd189 100644
--- a/modus-themes.el
+++ b/modus-themes.el
@@ -4612,8 +4612,8 @@ ;;;;; buttons, links, widgets
                             ,@(modus-themes--link-color
                                magenta-alt-other magenta-alt-other-faint fg-alt))))
     `(tooltip ((,class :background ,bg-special-cold :foreground ,fg-main)))
-    `(widget-button ((,class :inherit bold :foreground ,blue-alt)))
-    `(widget-button-pressed ((,class :inherit widget-button :foreground ,magenta)))
+    `(widget-button ((,class :inherit modus-themes-box-button)))
+    `(widget-button-pressed ((,class :inherit modus-themes-box-button-pressed)))
     `(widget-documentation ((,class :foreground ,green)))
     `(widget-field ((,class :background ,bg-alt :foreground ,fg-main :extend nil)))
     `(widget-inactive ((,class :inherit shadow :background ,bg-dim)))
@@ -7676,6 +7676,11 @@ ;;;; vc-annotate (C-x v g)
         (340 . ,blue-alt-other)
         (360 . ,magenta-alt-other)))
     `(vc-annotate-very-old-color nil)
+;;;; wid-edit
+    `(widget-link-prefix " ")
+    `(widget-link-suffix " ")
+    `(widget-push-button-prefix " ")
+    `(widget-push-button-suffix " ")
 ;;;; xterm-color
     `(xterm-color-names ["black" ,red ,green ,yellow ,blue ,magenta ,cyan "gray65"])
     `(xterm-color-names-bright ["gray35" ,red-alt ,green-alt ,yellow-alt ,blue-alt ,magenta-alt ,cyan-alt "white"])

[ NOTE: there is snowfall and my Internet connection is intermittent. ]

We can change the variables to our desired value. I generally try not to touch user options, but this may be justified. The relevant diff:

Very good. I agree that it may be justified here.

mentioned in commit ab8cbe3b

Thanks! I assume this can be closed?

closed

Thank you!

That Notmuch header, though.

Hello @salutis! That is ugly. Though the face merely renders obvious the underlying problem. Ever tried to hover the mouse over it before I made this change? You would get a jumbo box highlight.

This relates to what we discussed in issue 294 about the Notmuch logo. In my opinion, it is useless and breaks those buttons (both before and after the change to the faces discussed here). Upstream needs to keep the buffer simple by default. Try:

(setq notmuch-show-logo nil)

If there is some problem with the faces themselves, I am happy to review things. In this case though, Notmuch is at fault.

What do you think?

"Protesilaos Stavrou (@protesilaos)" gitlab@mg.gitlab.com writes:

What do you think?

After thinking it through, I agree with you. Thus, I will now (1) disable the logo and (2) close the other logo-related issue #294 (closed).

Thank you!

Rudy

...

-- "Thinking is a momentary dismissal of irrelevancies." -- Richard Buckminster Fuller, 1969

Rudolf Adamkovič salutis@me.com [he/him] Studenohorská 25 84103 Bratislava Slovakia

After thinking it through, I agree with you. Thus, I will now (1) disable the logo and (2) close the other logo-related issue #294 (closed).

I see. If you have any views about those button faces, feel welcome to share them.

I will add a brief note in the manual about the Notmuch logo. Basically to provide the (setq notmuch-show-logo nil).

The Notmuch header is really messed up. But I'd agree with Prot that this is an issue of Notmuch. I assume it is common that themes apply a background to buttons to give a button effect. This effect will certainly also occur in other themes. It is simply not a good idea to put a logo image in a line with text like this in particular if you don't control all the faces and the entire styling.

I think it is reasonable to expect faces for a "widget button" to have attributes like :underline, :background, :box. The default only has a bold weight, which should not be read as a guideline of how to use this face.

EDIT: fix typo.

mentioned in issue #294 (closed)

mentioned in commit 6a1e1551

I'd like to revive this issue. Personally, I think the notmuch logo is quite cute and would be sad if I had to disable it. However, even beyond that I disagree with the new look of the buttons. By default, the look is (imo) rather off-putting:

I know that one can customise this in various ways, but e.g. some form of background always remains. There seems to be no way to get the old (only bold) look back—I'd very much like that.

I assume it is common that themes apply a background to buttons to give a button effect.

FWIW, I've never seen a theme do that (maybe with other buttons, I don't know, but certainly never in notmuch)

I am sure you can overwrite every single setting applied by the theme, also the background via the :background property of the face. Maybe Prot can clarify what is needed to get back the old looks? Would it makes sense to add an opt-out configuration option to modus-themes-box-buttons or is just sufficient to describe in the documentation how to achieve the old looks via customization?

It will always be a matter of taste. The point is to achieve button looks consistently across Emacs. The widget buttons are used most widely in the Customize interface. There is no point in having different buttons there in comparison to other widget UIs. If you disagree with those buttons, you probably also disagree with the Customize looks?

Maybe Prot can clarify what is needed to get back the old looks?

That would be great!

Would it makes sense to add an opt-out configuration option to modus-themes-box-buttons or is just sufficient to describe in the documentation how to achieve the old looks via customization?

Seeing how such opt-out backwards compatibility functionality is often quite annoying to maintain, mentioning this in the CHANGELOG and adding something to the docs of modus-themes-box-buttons might be the best course of action. I can't speak for other users, of course, but it would certainly be enough for me.

The widget buttons are used most widely in the Customize interface. There is no point in having different buttons there in comparison to other widget UIs. If you disagree with those buttons, you probably also disagree with the Customize looks?

I have to admit that I've never used (and thus looked at) the Customize interface. Taking a quick glance now, the buttons "feel" a bit more appropriate there¹, although I definitely disagree with the overall "look" of the interface, yes (not that that's the fault of the theme!).

To my mind, the customize stuff seems to be a mouse-driven interface, and thus buttons that kind of look like buttons you would click sort of fit in. I've never made that association with notmuch's buttons; they, to me, don't seem like something that ought to be clicked.

wid-edit buttons

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