IDE 2.0.3 How to change compiler error message colour?

Development Tools IDE 2.x
1

In prior IDEs 1.x I could edit a file called theme.txt and change console.error.color to show errors in yellow which is better for my eyesight than dark red on black.

I have spent hours trying to find a clue but, sadly, I am clueless.

So, does anyone know how can I do that now?

Thanks

2

Hi @BNNORMAN. I am not aware of any easy way to modify the default themes of Arduino IDE 2.x.

You might be interested in these instructions a forum member shared for installing any of the many available 3rd party themes or even creating your own theme:

3

Thanks for the fast response. Ill take a look. It's a real eyestrain for me red on black.

4

Although it is still red on black, the Arduino IDE developers recently changed the red to a lighter color that has better contrast:

That change is already in the nightly build of Arduino IDE, so if you think that might be sufficient for your needs, you can give it a try. The nightly build download links are listed here:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/software#nightly-builds

The nightly build can coexist with Arduino IDE 2.0.3, so you are welcome to have both installed on your computer at the same time if you aren't sure whether you want to switch from 2.0.3 to the nightly build for good.

5

Ok, I downloaded the nightly but haven't installed it yet --- here goes.

Thanks for that.

6

Still too dark.
There was no installer so I assumed I just replace c:\program files\arduino IDE with the extracted files. In fact I renamed the old Arduino IDE folder and created a new one to copy the files etc into. I guess I'm going to have to read the theia docs.(another day).

7

I might give up on this since I can copy and paste the error messages but before then...

In here there are two theme files

C:\Program Files\Arduino IDE\resources\app\node_modules\arduino-ide-extension\src\browser\data


dark-color-theme.json
default-color-theme.json

These contain RGB colour values, one of which is 'errorForeground' sadly, changing the entries to #FFFF00 (yellow) in both files made no difference.

~/.Arduino IDE/settings.json tells me it is using "workbench.colorTheme": "arduino-theme"

But I have been unable to find that, assuming it's actually called arduino-theme.json

8

I think you would need to build Arduino IDE from source after making that change.

The instructions for running Arduino IDE from source code are here:

https://github.com/arduino/arduino-ide/blob/main/docs/development.md#development-guide

Unfortunately that is a bit advanced and inconvenient, which is why I said "I am not aware of any easy way" in my previous reply.

It is the default.color-theme.json file you found. The arduino-theme ID is mapped to that data file here:

9

Thanks for that explanation. I find it odd that, under the bonnet, theme files are present but they are baked in - i.e. no way to change the colour scheme, well, no way that I have found using the advanced preferences, unless I'm missing something.

As you said, it's complicated to build my own version - loads of extras to install for a one-shot use. I did find out something new , to me, Windows Subsystem for Linux which I will install. As for getting into modding/building the IDE, I don't think so.

Perhaps, if it isn't already on the to do list : User Modifiable Themes could be added (unless it's hidden from me already).

Thanks for your insights. I'll get on with the project I was working on before this.

10

Here it is:

However, note that the custom theme instructions I linked previously essentially provide this already. The missing piece would be for Arduino to decide to formally support that usage by publishing documentation (it is a "you're on your own" undocumented feature currently).

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In my personal view, there should be a theme file (json, ...) in the .arduino directory that the user can modify to his/her heart's content. No difficult fiddling with installation.

I did find some json files somewhere in the past but modifying those did not seem to work.

12

@sterretje Look at Post #7 - same here
@ptillisch Thanks for that. The extensions folder contains 1.46Gb - argh. I think this can be closed as it's on the to do list. Thanks.

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13

Sorry, Arduino developers: PLEASE read this thread, it is in my opinion totally unacceptable to spend so much time on finding out how to improve readability of error messages. It is absolutely arrogant that such simple functionality is made utterly complex. I am a professional developer using always Visual Studio, only for hobby I use arduino, this IDE really can be much improved. Also backwards compatibity, how weird that all posts about configuration are not relevant anymore. I spend 15 minutes on changing a color and cannot find it due to the huge amount of obsolete info. This is so bad.

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