Xmas Update for the Clean Sheet Eclipse Design
Hohoho! Just in time for Christmas, there is a new feature update of the Clean Sheet Eclipse design. This post gives a short overview of the most important gifts it puts underneath the Christmas tree, figuratively spoken ;-)
Following a good old Eclipse tradition, now there is a New & Noteworthy page, which provides a list of the most noteworthy features of the latest, Clean Sheet related, development efforts. Please refer to this page for more details on the topics introduced here, bug fix info, and more.
The Clean Sheet Eclipse Design
In case you've missed out on the topic and you are wondering what I'm talking about, here is a screenshot of my real world setup using the Clean Sheet theme (click on the image to enlarge).
For more information please refer to the features landing page at http://fappel.github.io/xiliary/clean-sheet.html, read the introductory Clean Sheet feature description blog post, and check out the New & Noteworthy page.Said all this, let’s have a look at the top three enhancements of the update:
Source Code Pro Incorporation
It seems to be the current consensus that the fewer details a font needs to convey a character clearly, the more legible it will appear on a broader range of screens. Hence, sans-serif fonts are often considered superior when it comes down to on-screen-readability of texts.
Clean Sheet now incorporates one of the most popular sans-serif open source fonts for coders as preset. This affects the preferences for Text Editor Block Selection, Text Font, and Java Editor Text Font (Window -> Preferences -> Colors and Fonts).
Enhanced Styling and Customization Capabilities
The styling capabilities shown above (fixed width scrollbars and increment/decrement button length configuration) has been introduced to resolve user requests about Eclipse theme development. With these in place, it stood to reason to make them also customizable in Clean Sheet by preference settings.
The corresponding preference page is located at Windows -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Scrollbars.
Dark Theme Contribution
Instead of supplying an extension of the Darth Vader look & feel, now the feature contributes the flat scrollable capabilities to the original Dark theme. This is less error prone and reduces the maintenance effort to a minimum. The screenshot shows an incorporation with fixed-size demeanor settings. The extra theme definition provided by previous versions has been discontinued and the flat scrollbar functionality gets added statically.
Clean Sheet / Cream Installation
Drag the 'Install' link below to your running Eclipse instance
or
Select Help > Install New Software.../Check for Updates.
P2 repository software site: @ http://fappel.github.io/xiliary/
Feature: Code Affine Theme
After feature installation and workbench restart select the ‘Clean Sheet’ / 'Cream' theme:
Preferences: General > Appearance > Theme: Clean Sheet / Cream
Finally…
Of course, it’s interesting to hear suggestions or find out about further potential issues that need to be resolved. Feel free to use the Xiliary Issue Tracker or the comment section below for reporting.
With this in mind, I’d like to thank all the Clean Sheet adopters for the support and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :-)
Title Image: © Depositphotos.com/zphoto
With a specialization in the Java language and a keen focus on quality-oriented agile methodologies, he is a strong advocate for test-driven practices.
To Frank, the software development process is akin to craftsmanship, founded on a harmonious blend of knowledge and daily work experience.
fappel@codeaffine.com
- Xmas Clean Sheet Update (0.9) - 21. December 2021
- Clean Sheet Service Update (0.8) - 23. May 2020
- Clean Sheet Service Update (0.7) - 24. April 2020
Does it support Eclipse for Mac?
Pedro, thanks for being interested in Clean Sheet. Currently, the theme is only available on Windows 10. Sorry that I forgot to mention this in the update post. The reason for this restriction is the lack of resources (hardware, software, and human). However, if you or someone else feel entitled to contribute and maintain a Mac manifestation of the feature, I would recommend opening an enhancement request at https://github.com/fappel/xiliary/issues. I would be happy to discuss the necessary realization steps and help out on the preparation and separation work. So spread the word around…