Guru: Going Dark In RDi
August 19, 2019 Paul Tuohy
In this article I am going to show you how to configure RDi for dark mode. Dark mode is where the background of an application is changed from white to black. Some say that dark mode makes text (and especially code) easier to read. Others say it’s more difficult to read. Personally, I am a convert, but I know other developers who hate it. Maybe you should give it a try and see which you prefer.
Recently, there has been a lot of debate about dark mode (mostly prompted by Apple introducing it as an option in its operating systems), but the end result is that it comes down to personal choice.
It has been my experience that dark mode is more likely to be the default with code editors on other platforms. It is important to note that dark mode does not mean “just like green screen”. Code is still automatically colored.
Compare the following default theme of RDi with the equivalent dark mode theme. Getting to dark mode requires changing two preferences.
The first preference to change is the theme for RDi. Open Preferences and navigate to General->Appearance. If it isn’t already ticked, tick the option for Enable theming then, from the drop down for Theme, select Dark and click the Apply button. You may need to restart RDi in order to see the change of theme.
You have now changed the default theme for RDi but not for the editor itself. The LPEX editor view still has a white background.
The second preference to change is the pallet for the LPEX editor. Open Preferences and navigate to LPEX Editor->Appearance. From the drop down for Pallette, select Black and click the Apply button. You are now in dark mode.
Why not give dark mode a try? Like me, you might find it a little easier on the eye — same horrible code but a little easier on the eye <g>.
Paul Tuohy, IBM Champion and author of Re-engineering RPG Legacy Applications, is a prominent consultant and trainer for application modernization and development technologies on the IBM Midrange. He is currently CEO of ComCon, a consultancy firm in Dublin, Ireland, and partner at System i Developer. He hosts the RPG & DB2 Summit twice per year with partners Susan Gantner and Jon Paris.
For what its worth, I’ve been in the dark for a long time… 🙂
Thanks Paul
Thanks Paul, great article.I went to the Dark Side on the LPEX Editor quite a while ago. A lot of my co-workers followed me. I do suggest playing with the colors (background and foreground) to make them more readable.For example, I changed the background on the ‘Compare added line text’ to Green, and made both the ‘Compare … line’ to white text. It is much easier to see.
I just applied dark mode and in most of my tabs (ie: Properties, Error List, .etc) there are horizontal white lines along with the veritical white lines. Looking at the screen shot you provided, I do not see any horizontal white lines. Is there a setting to turn that off?
Hi Paul – There are a couple of us giving the dark side a try. We think the dark background is better for our eyes. Our eyes feel less tired at the end of the day. For the most part I like it. There are a couple things I don’t like. For example the set SEP prompt panel is hideous and I can’t figure out what to change to make it better. The mix of light and dark background is bad. I’d prefer all dark. Thanks for letting us know about the dark side of RDi.
I would like to go dark but found a few issues I couldn’t fix. 1) Scroll bars are almost invisible, especially in the Outline view. 2) Using C-S-O to see nesting puts marks on the left side, but in dark mode these are dark blue on a black background which is unacceptable. I’ve settled for the GRAY theme which reduces the screen brightness a little