Re: Request: Dark theme -- yeah, I know, AGAIN.
Reply #42 – 2021-11-05 11:10:44
The Notepad++ DarkMode.h/.cpp source for this falls in "what has been seen cannot be unseen" category. I'm not sure if I dare using Notepad++ again after the horrors of that. I do not wish to release code that may break / need patching with new Windows builds, which is what Notepad++ now does. I believe that foobar2000 users should have the freedom to continue using their foobar2000 installation indefinitely, upgrade only when they choose to. Relying on undocumented Windows interfaces would undermine this concept. Dark mode was perfectly possible in Windows 95 era already - just set high contrast dark theme and all apps that respect system colors will behave accordingly, as long as they use standard dialogs, controls, system-defined color values, etc. I have always pedantically followed all these details, minimized the amount of custom rendering done, used system-supplied colors by default instead of hardcoding custom stuff. Dark mode should work juts fine with foobar2000 - if it wasn't designed by clowns that is, which it sadly is. Don't tell me to blame the app makers who didn't follow these rules, making apps that look broken with GetSysColor() telling them to use white text on dark background - that's what manifest flags or special startup API calls are for, just like with high DPI support; apps could get the legacy behavior unless they specifically report being compatible. That said, that some of Microsoft's own apps as of Windows 11 RTM are not dark mode compliant either - namely MS Paint and Notepad.