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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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. :-/
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 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.
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.
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.
Looks very good btw.