Vscode: [themes] Latest update makes syntax highlighting too intensive

[Ratismal]

• VSCode Version: Code 1.7.1 (02611b40b24c9df2726ad8b33f5ef5f67ac30b44, 2016-11-03T13:53:14.822Z)
• OS Version: Windows_NT ia32 10.0.14393
• Extensions:

|Extension|Author|Version|
|---|---|---|
|vscode-theme-onedark|akamud|0.2.10|
|theme-onedark|azemoh|0.3.2|
|vscode-eslint|dbaeumer|1.0.8|
|beautify|HookyQR|0.5.4|
|csharp|ms-vscode|1.4.1|

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One of my favourite parts of VSCode is the unobtrusive syntax highlighting. The only things that were highlighted were what was needed, making code very easy to read.

However, now it seems VSCode is trying to copy other IDEs such as Atom and Sublime Text, throwing colour absolutely everywhere. This makes reading my own code incredibly confusing, as I don't know what is what anymore.

Example:

Is there a way to revert to the old syntax highlighting scheme?

[TheColorRed]

They should go back for people who like the simple color scheme, and create a more vibrant color scheme for those who do like the color.

[bgse]

For the two main (Dark and Light) themes, there are two variants each, e.g. "Dark+" will be quite colorful, and "Dark" just color the bare minimum.

The default is the colorful "Dark+" though.

[Ratismal]

It's not the same though. While it's less obtrusive, it still uses the new token system. I'd like to see the option to switch between the new and old token systems, as this new update affects every single theme.

[skid]

I use the solarized syntax theme, which is one of the default themes. After the latest update the methods, properties, variables and function arguments are all suddenly blue. Having a means to at least change the color of different tokens would be very helpful.

[rebornix]

This one shares the same reason as #14921 .

[infinnie]

@rebornix you mean they, the Dark+/Light+ themes, weren’t intended to be highlighted like this?

@Ratismal you can currently use the themes Dark (Visual Studio)/Light (Visual Studio) for an unobtrusive syntax highlighting.

[Ratismal]

@infinnie As I said previously, this update still affects every existing theme. Also mentioned in the #14921, this update does things such as making literal templates the exact same colour as regular strings. Using the minimal Dark/Light themes are not a solution.

[linusbrolin]

I completely agree that the minimal Dark/Light themes are way too minimal.
I liked the Dark+ theme, because it added _some_ more syntax highlighting while still being unobtrusive.
But now, everything is light blue or light yellow or brown.

Replacing almost everything that was uncolored (white) with light blue is not an improvement.
And I've tried recreating the Dark+ theme as well as possible, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do it anymore.
It's either _everything_ light blue, or _nothing_ light blue, which is not a solution.
Same with light yellow.
And there are also some problems with some things getting wrongly colored green.
I've tried to explain the problem here: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/15001

Basically, the support.class scope colors too many things green that it shouldn't.
And the variable scope colors _way_ too many things light blue, making everything light blue.

What if I want only the variables to be light blue, and any keys/parameters within those variables be white? That doesn't seem to be possible anymore.

Right now, it's either everything or nothing, and that's a big step backwards in my opinion.

[thorn0]

As for the Solarized theme, for comparison, here is what it's supposed to look like. This screenshot is from the site of the Solarized project.

And VS Code (today's Insiders version):

Please see the Usage & Development part of the site. According to the design of this palette, for the optimal contrast, the main color of text on dark background is supposed to be base00 (gray, #657b83) whereas now in VS Code, text is mostly blue.

Also it's probably time to stop highlighting window, document, and other browser globals. They aren't reserved words, and JavaScript has been used beyond the browser for pretty long already.

[Ratismal]

As an update, I've found a workaround where I took the old javascript grammar from this commit and inserted it into vscode as a new extension. While, I'd prefer a native way to revert, this will do for now.

Here's the same code as I uploaded before, but with the legacy grammar:

[linusbrolin]

@Ratismal Can you make that extension available for everyone so we have a solution until this problem is fixed?

[Ratismal]

Not sure if I've done it correctly, but I published it here @linusbrolin

[linusbrolin]

@Ratismal Thanks!
I've installed it but don't see any difference.
Do I need to change any settings or replace any themes aswell, or should it just work out of the box with the built in Dark+ theme?

[Ratismal]

@linusbrolin I'm not sure; simply having it installed and reloading worked for me.

I'm not very knowledgeable about making extensions, so I made it overwrite the default languages. This may do weird things to your instance. I think there's a way to register it as a new language so it doesn't overwrite, but I have no idea how to do that. I've uploaded the source here if anybody wants to take a look?

[aeschli]

We understand that theme changes are always controversial. But we had a lot of requests and complaints about not highlighting type and function references. We ended up with a full rewrite of the typescript grammar as well as updated Plus themes. The grammar rewrite did not only add the new scopes but also fix a lot of issues in the grammar.
We don't want to add two more 'default' themes, nor do we want to modify the Visual Studio themes which are based on the way that Visual Studio colorizes. An extension is the way to go forward. I'm happy to help.
@Ratismal I will comment in https://github.com/Ratismal/vscode-legacy-js-grammar