WHAT IS YOUR DISPLAY?
display = XOpenDisplay("unix:0");
WHAT IS YOUR COLORMAP?
cmap = DefaultColormap(display, DefaultScreen(display));
AND WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?
favorite_color = 0; /* Black. */
/* Whoops! No, I mean: */
favorite_color = BlackPixel(display, DefaultScreen(display));
/* AAAYYYYEEEEE!! */
(client dumps core & falls into the chasm)
You are misunderstanding (or perhaps misrepresenting) the situation.
Quote from the person who filed the issue:
> I don't understand why you think my behavior is entitled. I genuinely thought it was a bug because the colors didn't look right to me, in the sense that some of them don't match what is expected from their name. I still think that because the colors are distant from their expected neutral form this makes it a poor default theme.
The original bug report was perfectly respectful, and this is a perfectly respectful reply to the revelation that it's "not-a-bug".
The maintainer is being aggressive and looking for a fight, venting their frustrations on some person who is trying to be helpful. All they had to say was, "Sorry, this is the default color scheme, we prefer it this way and I'm not concerned that the color isn't exactly green to everyone's eyes. Thanks for your interest!" and close the issue.
Not saying this is the case, but the reporter could very well be a non native speaker. As a non native myself, I don't see anything disrespectful in their report.
You mean from the guy who opened the issue? It started with a simple “the colors don’t seem to be right” in search of comments. Reporters cannot tag issues as bugs.
Alacritty has an IRC channel for discussions, and their contributing guidelines make it clear the issue tracker is for bugs and feature requests. I can see being frustrated with someone raising this issue as a bug.
It says to use the issue tracker for bug reports and feature requests. Was there nothing in the README at that time saying anything similar?
Regardless, people thinking whatever thing happened to aggravate them about a project is “a bug” is a huge and constant drain on open source maintainers. In this case, as other people have pointed out, there were other threads already where default colors were discussed that this person could have found, and even passing familiarity with terminal color schemes would show that much of the time, what the escape codes define as “green” or whatever is a very different color. That’s why the color schemes exist, so that you can redefine what “green” is for your own tastes. I can’t imagine opening an issue suggesting that a project change their default color scheme not because it’s inaccessible or illegible, but just because I don’t like it or it doesn’t look like some other project.
It says the right place for bug reports and feature requests is the issue tracker. It doesn't say nothing else belongs there. Actually it says the issue tracker is the right place for any other questions about contributing too. And it just says IRC is more immediate and direct.
README.md said "If you run into a problem with Alacritty, please file an issue." at the time.[1]
I don't see where anyone pointed out what you said multiple people pointed out. The closest I see is 1 person said there are 88 color related issues now. Feel free to point out a specific issue you think the reporter should have found.
It isn't clear they expected the colors to match exactly. The default green looked yellow to them. And changing the default colors would be a valid feature request if nothing else.
It’s not a valid feature request when the colors are already all configurable, so anyone can change them to be however they like. The green being a little yellower than this person preferred is not a problem worthy of bothering the people who wrote the software. Non-issues like this sap the will to live of people building cool things for free on their own time.
Edit: personally I don’t have the time to go digging through old repo issues of a project I don’t even work on for the sake of arguing about one entitled user. I do maintain several projects, and I definitely feel that these kind of aggressive non-issues are the worst.
Again, it looking yellow is a part of the theme. The names of the terminal colors are not supposed to correspond to exact colors all the time, otherwise there would be no such thing as a theme. They are just the names of the colors used for certain kinds of output in the default theme.
As for my attitude, luckily as a maintainer it’s my right to have whatever attitude I choose about the software I write, and people are free to use or not use the software as they see fit. It’s also my right to make my own decisions about when I feel like people are wasting my time unnecessarily, and particularly about when they’re being jerks about it.
Personally I find it very hard to maintain enthusiasm for the actual work of building the software when having to deal with entitlement in the issue tracker.
Again defaults matter. Certainly no one can stop you from feeling aggrieved or reacting hostilely. Personally I find it harder to maintain enthusiasm when dealing with attitudes like yours.
I mean, that’s fine I guess? You, as a theoretical person reporting an issue, are not the one who’s got to keep the project going, and it’s not my, the theoretical maintainer’s, job to keep you enthused.
I don't think this is "drama" unless people make it into "drama". Maintainers have a difficult job. The open source world is still young and its social norms are evolving. A sober ongoing discussion thereof is very warranted and seems quite on-topic for Hacker News.
There aren't a lot of options out there when you are a maintainer. You either stamp out anything that you know you are probably not going to be able to sink time and energy in to (either by ignoring it and letting the issue/project die a silent death or by commenting a $WONTFIX message) or you burn out.
Actually, often you do pull out your Pantone or HKS color matching cards to work out which specific red is required, whereas you don't care which brand etc. your print service uses.
(src: merchandise printing)
(Also, at one place I worked we bought some used server racks that we were told had been painted in a very specific company standard server rack beige by the previous owner megacorp.)
Totally unnecessary comment targeting other people's "behavior". Just say it's part of default coloring theme and you are welcome to create your own. Isn't this enough?
I don’t see entitled behavior ... but I do see someone on the verge of burnout, making feedback about the software about themselves, and lashing out. I wouldn’t want to work with such a person.
I often see GitHub projects, maybe from people who are not native English speakers, with bad grammar in the Readme.md . Is it OK to create an issue pointing out spelling and grammar errors and suggesting fixes? Resolving such an issue will not improve the code but can make the project more accessible.
My English is poor and I'd love such fixes. But, I guess, it comes down to a person. What I think is worth discussing before suggesting are "polite correct" fixes like "blacklist -> blocklist", "master -> main", "he -> them", etc. Not everyone is fine with this new agenda and one might find those fixes offensive. I'm not saying that those fixes are not appropriate everywhere, just that it's worth discussing before submitting to avoid a pointless debate.
Personally I would much prefer this, especially as a PR, than nitpicking about default (and configurable) colors like in the linked issue. Even as a native English speaker, I frequently make typos, and I’ll often wind up with weird phrasing or grammar due to consecutive rounds of editing things out.
A lot of people are saying the maintainer’s reaction was over the top. I don’t think so, but I think it comes down to your perception of Issues, specifically whether you view them as an area for bug reports vs an area for discussions.
Alacritty is a really popular project. It probably gets a ton of issues being opened. As a maintainer, every single issue is time you’ve got to take out from stuff you’d rather be doing. From that perspective, someone popping in to complain about the default colorscheme because it doesn’t look like their previous editor, when they can easily change the colors to be however they like, is going to be super frustrating. This is doubly true if you don’t usually view issues as a spot for general discussion.
I can see that the person who posted the issue was trying to help, but honestly it’s just not very helpful. A lot of people view airing their own personal dissatisfaction with a tool as being helpful, and generally that’s not true.
Edit: also just noting that alacritty has an IRC channel linked on their README for discussion of things that aren’t bugs.
Both sides of the github issue discussion are incredibly fragile, defensive, and sensitive.
The conversation should have been:
A: “Hey this green is legit yellow, this is very confusing for new users. I’m not sure if this is a bug because it’s so abnormal I’ve never seen this anywhere ever before”
B: “Ya we did that on purpose, because we hate green, please use the IRC channel in the future to determine if something is a bug or something we did because of our dislike for the color green first in the future. Our github time is more important than our IRC time. Anyone who doesn’t know all our rules will be attacked and banned from the community. And here are some other themes for people that like green to look green instead of yellow, please enjoy.”
2. The default colors are all wrong (my own unwavering opinion). If the maintainer wants his own defaults colors, he can apply his own configuration for this and offer such scheme to those who prefer the same choice.
3. We all can crack at some point in time. So we need to be big and allow the space for both such discussions and the occasional blowout, but at the same time not be abused by it. Arrogance only reflect really badly on yourself in the end, but it can happen to the best of us.
4. Maybe someone is color-blind? Who knows? We must expect variety.
1. agreed. Hard to reply in ways that don't partake in and invite further polarizing discussion.
2. Agreed. Expressing it in HSL colorspace makes it pretty clear how close to yellow, and far from the large space of expressible greens. In RGB, yellow is the region near R% = G%, so #b9ca49 is, at a glace, still close to yellow. https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp?colorhex=....
(4) Accessibility was mentioned and deuteranopia, red-green color blindness, is most common. Perhaps this shade is distinguishable. Accessible defaults are worthwhile.
52 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 94.2 ms ] threadQuote from the person who filed the issue:
> I don't understand why you think my behavior is entitled. I genuinely thought it was a bug because the colors didn't look right to me, in the sense that some of them don't match what is expected from their name. I still think that because the colors are distant from their expected neutral form this makes it a poor default theme.
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/1561#issuecomm...
The original bug report was perfectly respectful, and this is a perfectly respectful reply to the revelation that it's "not-a-bug".
The maintainer is being aggressive and looking for a fight, venting their frustrations on some person who is trying to be helpful. All they had to say was, "Sorry, this is the default color scheme, we prefer it this way and I'm not concerned that the color isn't exactly green to everyone's eyes. Thanks for your interest!" and close the issue.
Describing someone else’s work and choices as ‘poor’, especially when you didn’t pay them anything for it, is disrespectful.
Regardless, people thinking whatever thing happened to aggravate them about a project is “a bug” is a huge and constant drain on open source maintainers. In this case, as other people have pointed out, there were other threads already where default colors were discussed that this person could have found, and even passing familiarity with terminal color schemes would show that much of the time, what the escape codes define as “green” or whatever is a very different color. That’s why the color schemes exist, so that you can redefine what “green” is for your own tastes. I can’t imagine opening an issue suggesting that a project change their default color scheme not because it’s inaccessible or illegible, but just because I don’t like it or it doesn’t look like some other project.
README.md said "If you run into a problem with Alacritty, please file an issue." at the time.[1]
I don't see where anyone pointed out what you said multiple people pointed out. The closest I see is 1 person said there are 88 color related issues now. Feel free to point out a specific issue you think the reporter should have found.
It isn't clear they expected the colors to match exactly. The default green looked yellow to them. And changing the default colors would be a valid feature request if nothing else.
[1] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/9bc888fbe581efeb...
Edit: personally I don’t have the time to go digging through old repo issues of a project I don’t even work on for the sake of arguing about one entitled user. I do maintain several projects, and I definitely feel that these kind of aggressive non-issues are the worst.
It wasn't just a little yellower than they preferred. It looked yellow to them.
As a maintainer I definitely feel your attitude is worse than theirs.
As for my attitude, luckily as a maintainer it’s my right to have whatever attitude I choose about the software I write, and people are free to use or not use the software as they see fit. It’s also my right to make my own decisions about when I feel like people are wasting my time unnecessarily, and particularly about when they’re being jerks about it.
Personally I find it very hard to maintain enthusiasm for the actual work of building the software when having to deal with entitlement in the issue tracker.
https://bikeshed.com/
http://phk.freebsd.dk/sagas/bikeshed/
What if there's a product requirement to paint the shed red?
That's literally what happened here, something didn't look green when the user expected it to be green, and the user thought it was a bug.
Then you argue over the paint brand, how much to buy at what price, rollers vs sprayers vs brushes, and so on.
(src: merchandise printing)
(Also, at one place I worked we bought some used server racks that we were told had been painted in a very specific company standard server rack beige by the previous owner megacorp.)
no wonder linux has shitty UX
Alacritty is a really popular project. It probably gets a ton of issues being opened. As a maintainer, every single issue is time you’ve got to take out from stuff you’d rather be doing. From that perspective, someone popping in to complain about the default colorscheme because it doesn’t look like their previous editor, when they can easily change the colors to be however they like, is going to be super frustrating. This is doubly true if you don’t usually view issues as a spot for general discussion.
I can see that the person who posted the issue was trying to help, but honestly it’s just not very helpful. A lot of people view airing their own personal dissatisfaction with a tool as being helpful, and generally that’s not true.
Edit: also just noting that alacritty has an IRC channel linked on their README for discussion of things that aren’t bugs.
The conversation should have been:
A: “Hey this green is legit yellow, this is very confusing for new users. I’m not sure if this is a bug because it’s so abnormal I’ve never seen this anywhere ever before”
B: “Ya we did that on purpose, because we hate green, please use the IRC channel in the future to determine if something is a bug or something we did because of our dislike for the color green first in the future. Our github time is more important than our IRC time. Anyone who doesn’t know all our rules will be attacked and banned from the community. And here are some other themes for people that like green to look green instead of yellow, please enjoy.”
A: “oh cool, thanks”
2. The default colors are all wrong (my own unwavering opinion). If the maintainer wants his own defaults colors, he can apply his own configuration for this and offer such scheme to those who prefer the same choice.
3. We all can crack at some point in time. So we need to be big and allow the space for both such discussions and the occasional blowout, but at the same time not be abused by it. Arrogance only reflect really badly on yourself in the end, but it can happen to the best of us.
4. Maybe someone is color-blind? Who knows? We must expect variety.
2. Agreed. Expressing it in HSL colorspace makes it pretty clear how close to yellow, and far from the large space of expressible greens. In RGB, yellow is the region near R% = G%, so #b9ca49 is, at a glace, still close to yellow. https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp?colorhex=....
(4) Accessibility was mentioned and deuteranopia, red-green color blindness, is most common. Perhaps this shade is distinguishable. Accessible defaults are worthwhile.