Bug#1088739: colors make ip's output unreadable
Hello,
On Fri, 3 Jan 2025 21:00:38 +0100 Vincent Bernat <vincent@bernat.ch> wrote:
> On 2025-01-02 20:53, Luca Boccassi wrote:
> > Sorry, but as already mentioned in this bug, I disagree with this
> > request, as the output is_much_ clearer with colors. Those who don't
> > want this, can just trivially disable it, just like with networkctl
> > and others. The default should provide the maximum usability. Even
> > with a simple 2 IFs case, due to the density of textual information
> > reported by these commands, color-highlighting helps tremendously to
> > given prominence to the important information, so that they jump up to
> > the eye:
> >
> > https://i.imgur.com/l46ifzN.png
> >
> > This is even more true when there are many interfaces on a system.
>
> I don't find the dark blue on black very readable either, but this is
> more a terminal issue. In my terminal, I have a brighter blue that fits
> my needs.
>
> https://imgur.com/a/iFJEuV7
>
> Instead of trying to ask each program to modify their palettes, people
> could configure their terminals.
I'm hesitant to intervene because I know this is a controversial
topic. However, I'd like to bring to your attention that the usage of
colors in terminal output can be very hard to read for some (many?)
people. I have a lot of trouble reading colored output, be it to much
contrast or to little. Therefore personally I'd like to see color
usage as opt-in instead of opt-out. I have to keep a whole list of
aliases and environment variables to suppress color, each program has
it's own option which is borderline insane. I used to have set my
$TERM variable as either VT100 or xterm-mono to suppress colors but
with modern tools which just dump ansi without regard to the terminal
setting it's sad one has to do so much work to have a monochrome
terminal. My view is the system should be accessible in the default
setup. The usage of colors on the terminal is really hard to get right
for all and I think it's best to disable it and let the people who
want colors and can properly see them configure their terminal as they
want.
Kind regards,
Axel
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