#UnpopularOpinion:

#CLI programs do not need to use color.

First of all, there's the sad assumption of a dark theme which I'm never going to be rocking, so just get over it. Cool computers always have/had a light background. This is where I live now. I ain't movin'.

Second of all, there's the dance of having to use -r with less if it uses color or use something like --no-color as a command line flag.

Thirdly, it's honestly just lazy. There's so much you can do to differentiate and grab attention without using color. There's always boldface and italics, but even without those, there's plenty of ways of differentiating things.

I will say though for #TUI applications that need maximum information density, color is very useful.

@rl_dane personally I want to aim with @OS1337 to make it work on a 80x25 #MDA screen (i.e. Terminal) and go from there.

  • If someone wants to make some ultra-low-power system running on an #eInk then they sgure can do a "Bright Theme". I just won't do a bright theme on my LCDs because it strains my eyes...

@kkarhan @OS1337

Do you mean actual #MDA display hardware, or just 80x25 (720x350, IIRC) monochrome?

I never quite understood why the PC standardized on 80x25, but classic terminals on 80x24.

IBM Monochrome Display Adapter - Wikipedia

@rl_dane @OS1337 well, MDA as in the standard that every PC graphics card since the #MDA still supports - not just VGA

  • For #Terminals the 25th (rarely "0th") line is used to display status information in lieu of "lock lights" or other indicators so unlike on a #PC it's not useable there...

Obviously one can set / customize the default Terminal Output Size in the #Kernel configs at build, but #80x25 (or at least #80x24) should be supported everywhere.

  • Actual MDA displays are expensive collectibles and in lieu of that I'd rather configure the 1st serial port ( tty0 aka. COM1) to spit out a 9600/8/N/1 #console when #VGA or similar video output doesn't exist.

But even the shittiest GPU will do MDA without drivers on #ix86 & #amd64 because that's some #BIOS routine command and part of the backwards compatibility of every single 2D/graphics chip I've heard of that isn's a mere 3D accelerator with 2D passhtrough

IBM Monochrome Display Adapter - Wikipedia

@kkarhan @OS1337

I really hope we never get to the point where modern video cards ditch the glorious old video modes.

@rl_dane @OS1337 Unlike bare-metal support for old #DirectX versions I am convinced #MDA will stay for multiple reasons:

  • Everything from the simplest #BIOS to most expensive commercial #UNIX rely on it for local outputs so much so that even the cheapest GPU one can buy new (#SiliconMotion #SM750) and every #BMC / #iKVM needs to support it.

Like I'm convinced it's economical suicide if any vendor decides to brick early boot messages on #RHEL, #SLES, etc. for no valid reason.

  • Also MDA is the simplest mode and even if done entirely in Firmware on the GPU will be performant enough to deliver 60Hz & 60fps constantly.

Like I'm surprised noone has built a "LOM Card" to offer hardware-independent iKVM/BMC & #LOM capabilities to any system with like a (Mini-)PCIe (x1) slot...

GitHub - KBtechnologies/LOMcard: A "Lights Out Managment" Card that provides said capability to any PC system.

A "Lights Out Managment" Card that provides said capability to any PC system. - KBtechnologies/LOMcard

GitHub