Show HN: Cobalt2 theme and colour scheme for Sublime Text | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Cobalt2 theme and colour scheme for Sublime Text

github.com

80 pointswesbos52 comments

Wait, I thought it's not possible to style the sidebar in ST (or at least not much)? I was searching for a plugin that would show Git status in my sidebar (as Atom does) but everywhere I looked people were saying it's not possible because of this limitation in ST.

Looks very good btw.

There is no sidebar API, yet. But in the latest ST3 release they allow for custom icons. Hopefully we will see more sidebar APIs so we can do things like color code files based on their git status.

I've been using this plugin for git status: https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/GitGutter

Would love this for Ultraedit && Notepad++. PEople would probably pay at least a dollar for this.

I've ported it to Iterm and Zsh (https://github.com/wesbos/Cobalt2-iterm) as well as Atom (https://github.com/wesbos/Cobalt2-atom). If anyone wants to port to another editor, I'd be happy to let you use the name.

Oh and for Alfred too! https://github.com/wesbos/Cobalt2-Alfred-Theme

Getting this on MonoDevelop would be great!

I would definitely like to see this ported to vim, I'm just not sure where to get started on that.

Great looking theme, although I'm a real fan of Brogrammer. Dodgy name, but very stylish.

https://github.com/kenwheeler/brogrammer-theme

I wish there was a base16 (https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) theme that fully skinned sublime like this does.

It's not too hard, I adapted Ian Hill's Soda (which clearly was also used for a lot of the UI in this theme) to Solarized for the same reason here: https://github.com/jrolfs/sodarized. I'd be happy to answer any questions about doing so for base16.

I would greatly appreciate it if this made it into an Emacs theme, though a really good Emacs theme tends to be quite a bit more involved than a ST2 theme, since there's so much more to theme.

There is https://github.com/cryon/subatomic which is kind of a mix between cobalt and zenburn.

You can easily roll your own Emacs theme with this Emacs theme creator https://github.com/mswift42/theme-creator.

Looks cool, but this is still my favorite theme for Sublime: http://kkga.github.io/spacegray/

My favorite as well.

It's also a perfect match for the Numix desktop theme, which I find lovely: https://numixproject.org/

I love it. coffee / js icons in sidebar are very useful. :D

Needed to restart before the Sidebar updated - but looks good!

Oh man, I love those icons! Great stuff!

Very nice, reminds me of the old Borland Turbo Pascal and Turbo C colors.

I would love a darker variant of this theme. Everything is so bright... !

Is it available for Atom?

I've started a port - the sidebar icons aren't there yet but the code highlighting is - https://github.com/wesbos/cobalt2-atom

Hmm. The left navigation stuff doesn't seem to update.

Read the readme - you need to enable the theme (different than the colour scheme) in your settings file: `"theme": "Cobalt2.sublime-theme"`

You did a great job bro!

Very cool theme.

I do not understand why people code on a dark background. I get the CRT retro aesthetic, but it is less readable on modern screens. Reflections on glossy displays become a problem. When was the last time you saw a website with a black background?

I can't tell if people coding on dark backgrounds are hipsters, or just don't know any better.

prolly jus hipsters

I can't explain why, but for me prose is easier to read on a light background and code is easier to read on a dark background. I imagine it has something to do with proportional fonts vs. monospace fonts and how the eye distinguishes the characters.

Edit: I think it may also have to do with the ability to distinguish colors used in syntax highlighting.

It might be a holdover from when I first learned to code, but I can't get into any sort of flow when trying to program on a light background.

It's less tiresome for your eyes, eventually your eyes will demand you to use dark color schemes.

The opposite is true. The screen should match the ambient lighting of the room. Eye strain is caused by constant iris resizing. Looking at the screen, and the wall next to the screen shouldn't require you eye to adjust.

I can recommend f.lux. With it the whole environment becomes of about the same light. Without it, and with a dark theme in your code editor you have one level of light, and when you switch to a web browser you can bombarded by photons. :-/

> I can recommend f.lux

Or the oss variant redshift: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

I actually had to switch to Solarized Light for awhile because my eyes couldn't stand white text on a dark background. I'm back to using a dark theme now though.

It's more l33t that way. We all just like pretending we're in swordfish.

I switch back and forth. Each year or so the colors start to make code look like work, so I change it up and things look fresh again. So far, I've gone between Slush & Poppies, Cobalt, Monokai, Solarized Dark, Monokai, Solarized Light, and most recently Cyberpunk (the Emacs Live theme).

Dark backgrounds are easier on the eyes, especially on dimmer environments.

I don't want the full power of the LED backlight to hit me on the eyes with its full force in my editor screen which I look into for 8+ hours a day...

>I can't tell if people coding on dark backgrounds are hipsters, or just don't know any better.

Or perhaps you don't know any better...

This is often repeated nonsense. What is hard on your eyes is changing intensity. Switching between dark code and light email is the problem. The screen should also be about the same brightness as the room, so looking away from the computer doesn't require eye adjustment.

The transition from dark to light is mildly painful, so you have a false sensation that the dark background is better because switching away from it is irritating.

>The screen should also be about the same brightness as the room, so looking away from the computer doesn't require eye adjustment.

Well, I like my room quite dark too.

Besides that, that "what is hard on your eyes is changing intensity" is absolutely BS.

Do you get comfortamble with a strobe light on your eyes after a while if it doesn't "change the intensity"? Photo-sensitivity is a thing.

Oops, wrote "strobe", meant "spot light".

Now that Brackets.io is 1.0 and Atom is getting more mature, is Sublime Text really still relevant? It should go FOSS to stay competitive.

Can Atom open files larger than 2MB yet?

I ran into the limitation this morning, so as of 0.140.0, the answer is still "No" :(

They have 0.146.0 out now.

I don't really know that this is true.

Sublime is a zillion times faster than Atom, and brackets isn't something that enters into the same league as either. I don't see how open-sourcing will help it.

Sublime Text appears to be developed by someone who actively shuns his users, though.

Given the speed difference I’m less bothered by a little bit of user shunning.

Still better than a ho-hum editor from user-lovers like Atom or Brackets...

Are they really? User-lovers, I mean.

Just a few days ago I got an email from a plugin developer (Sublimall), anounching that they're stopping development. Quote from the email: "There is no community, no documentation, API is not well designed and there is absolutely no communication with Sublime Text developers.".

I don't know if I can recommend it, really. There's a real risk other plugins I rely on won't be maintained anymore.

>Just a few days ago I got an email from a plugin developer (Sublimall)

Well, that's just one developer though -- and who might be frustrated because of small adoption for his plugin. Haven't even heard of that one to be frank, but I see good movement in the ST plugin space for the stuff I use.

But my point was actually the opposite: I'd take a more fleshed out product like ST even if it's not user-friendly (in the community, developer relationship sense), over a user-friendly product thats not as functional, such as Atom etc.

If ST stops serving my needs (which it can serve as long as it runs in the current state, I don't need anything new, except for it to be ported to new versions of OS X), I'm OK. Else I can switch. I've used anything, and I'm a 15+ years Vim user too, so I can always go back to that.

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