In the "error compiling window" in the arduino-21 IDE the colors on my machine, which running Obuntu 10.04, are red on black, which I can barely read .. how do I change them. Even changing the font size would help.
The preferences file doesn't seem to have any effect.
I also noticed a preference file I downloaded from a google query had more preferences than mine.
red on black, which I can barely read
I hated that also.
Maybe hate is too strong a word, but it did annoy me. (See Footnote.)
So...
I didn't let it ruin my life. It's one of those little (or not-so-little) annoyances that can be fixed if you know the trick.
And---drum roll, please---Here's the trick:
Find a file named "theme.txt" in your Arduino distribution. (arduino-0021/lib/theme/theme.txt, for example).
Make a backup copy of that file (just in case). Some types of errors in that file can cause arduino to fail to launch, and I always want a backup for any of the arduino distribution files that I change.
Edit the file with your favorite text editor. (That's vim, right?) Change the console.color and console.output.color lines to something that suits you better.
Here are the relevant lines in my theme.txt. I change from red-on-black to black-on-white. I commented out the original lines and added my preference right after each one. That way it's easier for me to "remember" the changes I made.
#console.color = #000000
console.color = #ffffff
#console.output.color = #cccccc
console.output.color = #000000
I always launch arduino from a command line. The Arduino console output is also sent to the terminal window from which it was invoked. That's more convenient to me for looking at long lines that give multiple errors, but I really like to see it better from within the arduino IDE also. That's why I made the change in theme.txt.
Regards,
Dave
Footnote:
"You can tell the size of a man
by the size of the thing
that makes him mad."
---Adlai E. Stevenson