Delta's default diff background colors appear to depend on the terminal background.
They can look reasonable on near-black terminal backgrounds, but can look quite poor on other dark backgrounds, for example blue-gray or slate-like themes.
When this happens, the cause is not obvious. A user may reasonably expect a diff rendering/coloring tool to control its own visual output, including the effective background used for rendered diff blocks. Some tools do set their own background/canvas, making their output more predictable across terminal themes.
With delta, however, the final appearance depends on the terminal background, while this dependency does not seem clearly documented.
Possible improvements:
- document that default diff colors assume or work best with certain terminal backgrounds
- consider setting a default rendering background/canvas
- provide an option or preset for controlling the effective canvas/background
- consider more neutral or adaptive default diff backgrounds
Delta's default diff background colors appear to depend on the terminal background.
They can look reasonable on near-black terminal backgrounds, but can look quite poor on other dark backgrounds, for example blue-gray or slate-like themes.
When this happens, the cause is not obvious. A user may reasonably expect a diff rendering/coloring tool to control its own visual output, including the effective background used for rendered diff blocks. Some tools do set their own background/canvas, making their output more predictable across terminal themes.
With delta, however, the final appearance depends on the terminal background, while this dependency does not seem clearly documented.
Possible improvements: