Setting up colours on Linux version

24 views
Skip to first unread message

Peter Linehan

unread,
Aug 16, 2022, 9:41:14 AM8/16/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
Hi all,
If this has been asked before please could you direct me to where.
I have ( and have had for a long time) TSE running on Windows. Now I want the same colourscheme On Linux.

Basically a pale blue or greenish background with intense white text for the main body of the window.

So how do I go about it because I cant seem to achieve it by just setting the colours in the options - There is no colour pallete  available and none of the schemes offerd seem to give me anything near what I want.

Any advice/help would be appreciated.
AND A very big thanks for TSE - I used it for over 30 years (Qedit it was then)


knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 16, 2022, 11:05:49 AM8/16/22
to TSE Pro Support
1. As a first possible step can you on your Microsoft Windows TSE goto menu options, then choose 'save configuration to file', then choose a filename, save, then send this file.

2. Do thr same on your TSE Linux menu and send that configuration file also.

3. What is your Linux distribution used e.g. RedHat, and which version?  e.g. 8, ...

4. What is your TSE Linux  version? 4...

5. What is your TSE Windows version? 4....

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Samsung Galaxy Note 9 black 512 gigabytes

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/semware/72df22a4-d90b-4ef8-b5b9-ec36143bad15n%40googlegroups.com.

Carlo Hogeveen

unread,
Aug 16, 2022, 1:27:13 PM8/16/22
to sem...@googlegroups.com

About setting very specific colors in Linux TSE.
To the best of my knowledge this is not possible.

The Windows GUI version of TSE 4.2 upwards provides the SetColorTableValue() function to set each of TSE's 16 foreground colors and 16 background colors to one of 16,777,216 RGB colors.
Both TSE's "Select Color Palettes" configuration option and the Palette tool on my website use this function.

My tests say that in Linux TSE this function compiles but does nothing.
There are a few functions that compile on Linux for compatibily's sake, but do nothing because they were not simple or a priority to be implemented for Linux, and I suspect SetColorTableValue() is one of them.

Carlo




Peter Linehan

unread,
Aug 17, 2022, 2:48:34 PM8/17/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
Knud:,
1: re TSE_Windows.txt
2: re TSE_linux.txt
3: Kbuntu 20.04
4: Windows 4.4, Linux 4.5

Thanks in advance for your help.
NB Carlo suggested that on Linux what I want to do is impossible BUT any pointer would help and any reference to how colors.ini is set up might help me.

Cheers
Peter
TSE_linux.txt
TSE_Windows.txt

knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 17, 2022, 3:00:21 PM8/17/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
Peter,

I am sure now that this is not possible, as Carlo has already informed:


> My tests say that in Linux TSE this function compiles but does nothing.
> There are a few functions that compile on Linux for compatibily's sake, but do nothing because they were not simple or a priority to be implemented for Linux, and I suspect > SetColorTableValue() is one of them.

Semware (Sammy) will confirm this (maybe some time)(is assumed).

So as long as 'SetColorTableValue()' is not or can not be implemented in Linux, then that is the bottleneck and root cause
that it does not or will not work.

Note: My idea was to look at the color information in the configuration files, duplicate, burn it in Linux TSE if possible and try it again, e.g. on that specific distribution of Linux, but this approach looks thus like a non-resolution as it is not /should not be possible.

Thanks
with friendly greetings
Knud van Eeden

knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 17, 2022, 3:28:59 PM8/17/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
1. Checking in the latest version of TSE e.g. readme if something is told about color issues, nothing immediately found.

2. Then searching in all files of the unzipped TSE Linux 4.43 from


doing a 'grep':

> grep -i0s SetColorTableValue *.*

File: C:\Users\useridDownloads\DDD2\tse\sc32
File: C:\Users\userid\Downloads\DDD2\tse\synhi\sal.syn

This indirectly confirms the observation from Carlo that this 'SetColorTableValue()' compiles (because it is known in 'sc32'
(which means 'S'emware 'C'ompiler 32 bits), thus the TSE compiler.

But it does thus not do anything.




knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 17, 2022, 3:32:27 PM8/17/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
> sal.syn

And that it is found in sal.syn, which is the TSE syntax highlight files for TSE SAL, indicates thus that it is a known
keyword in TSE.

Indeed looking in the TSE help will show it is a keyword with additional information.

You can have a look in your TSE Linux TSE what it tells you (assumed).


Guy Rouillier

unread,
Aug 18, 2022, 4:25:34 AM8/18/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
I'm not an expert on this topic by any means, but I have gotten my TSE Linux to reflect the appearance of TSE Pro Windows using the same settings file.  I export the settings file on Windows using Options - Full Configuration - Write Settings to ASCII File..., then copy that file to my Linux system, and burn it in using sc32.

I did this years ago, so I'm a little vague on the details.  But I did remember I had to adjust the Terminal Color Palette.  I use Ubuntu Mate, and the Mate Terminal has in the main menu Edit - Profile Preferences..  In the settings dialog that pops up, one tab is Colors.  I had to change a couple entries under the Palette heading.  Having done that once years ago, I have since been able to simply import the settings file from Windows, and TSE LInux looks and acts similarly.  I also had to do the same burn in using sc32 for my customized UI file to get the same key assignments, e.g., F3 = exit.

Hope this helps.

--
Guy Rouillier
--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/semware/72df22a4-d90b-4ef8-b5b9-ec36143bad15n%40googlegroups.com.

 width=Virus-free.www.avast.com

Carlo Hogeveen

unread,
Aug 18, 2022, 5:56:50 AM8/18/22
to sem...@googlegroups.com

I see a significant amount of readers clicked on the "Linux TSE" link that Knud emailed:
https://ecarlo.nl/tse/files/tse-linux-4.43.zip

The following link provides access to the same link PLUS access to my attempt at Linux TSE installation tips:
https://ecarlo.nl/tse/index.html#linux_tse_download

Carlo



S.E. Mitchell

unread,
Aug 18, 2022, 9:00:00 AM8/18/22
to TSEPro Support
This is really helpful info Carlo!
Thanks so much for creating and sharing this!

--
Sammy Mitchell
> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/semware/001f01d8b2e8%24d2f1ac00%2478d50400%24%40ecarlo.nl.

H P

unread,
Aug 18, 2022, 1:57:40 PM8/18/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
The next part comes from a manual of putty.
======================================================================================
4.13 The Colours panel

The Colours panel allows you to control PuTTY's use of colour.

4.13.1 ‘Allow terminal to specify ANSI colours’

This option is enabled by default. If it is disabled, PuTTY will ignore any control sequences sent by the server to request coloured text.

If you have a particularly garish application, you might want to turn this option off and make PuTTY only use the default foreground and background colours.

4.13.2 ‘Allow terminal to use xterm 256-colour mode’

This option is enabled by default. If it is disabled, PuTTY will ignore any control sequences sent by the server which use the extended 256-colour mode supported by recent versions of xterm.

If you have an application which is supposed to use 256-colour mode and it isn't working, you may find you need to tell your server that your terminal supports 256 colours. On Unix, you do this by ensuring that the setting of TERM describes a 256-colour-capable terminal. You can check this using a command such as infocmp:

$ infocmp | grep colors colors#256, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, pairs#256,

If you do not see ‘colors#256’ in the output, you may need to change your terminal setting. On modern Linux machines, you could try ‘xterm-256color’.

4.13.3 ‘Allow terminal to use 24-bit colour’

This option is enabled by default. If it is disabled, PuTTY will ignore any control sequences sent by the server which use the control sequences supported by modern terminals to specify arbitrary 24-bit RGB colour value.

4.13.4 ‘Indicate bolded text by changing...’

When the server sends a control sequence indicating that some text should be displayed in bold, PuTTY can handle this in several ways. It can either change the font for a bold version, or use the same font in a brighter colour, or it can do both (brighten the colour and embolden the font). This control lets you choose which.

By default bold is indicated by colour, so non-bold text is displayed in light grey and bold text is displayed in bright white (and similarly in other colours). If you change the setting to ‘The font’ box, bold and non-bold text will be displayed in the same colour, and instead the font will change to indicate the difference. If you select ‘Both’, the font and the colour will both change.

Some applications rely on ‘bold black’ being distinguishable from a black background; if you choose ‘The font’, their text may become invisible.

4.13.5 ‘Attempt to use logical palettes’

Logical palettes are a mechanism by which a Windows application running on an 8-bit colour display can select precisely the colours it wants instead of going with the Windows standard defaults.

If you are not getting the colours you ask for on an 8-bit display, you can try enabling this option. However, be warned that it's never worked very well.

4.13.6 ‘Use system colours’

Enabling this option will cause PuTTY to ignore the configured colours for ‘Default Background/Foreground’ and ‘Cursor Colour/Text’ (see section 4.13.7), instead going with the system-wide defaults.

Note that non-bold and bold text will be the same colour if this option is enabled. You might want to change to indicating bold text by font changes (see section 4.13.4).

4.13.7 Adjusting the colours in the terminal window

The main colour control allows you to specify exactly what colours things should be displayed in. To modify one of the PuTTY colours, use the list box to select which colour you want to modify. The RGB values for that colour will appear on the right-hand side of the list box. Now, if you press the ‘Modify’ button, you will be presented with a colour selector, in which you can choose a new colour to go in place of the old one. (You may also edit the RGB values directly in the edit boxes, if you wish; each value is an integer from 0 to 255.)

PuTTY allows you to set the cursor colour, the default foreground and background, and the precise shades of all the ANSI configurable colours (black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white). You can also modify the precise shades used for the bold versions of these colours; these are used to display bold text if you have chosen to indicate that by colour (see section 4.13.4), and can also be used if the server asks specifically to use them. (Note that ‘Default Bold Background’ is not the background colour used for bold text; it is only used if the server specifically asks for a bold background.)

======================================================================================
So I think if putty can use colours TSE could do this also.
I can't use Linux anymore so I cant test this but I hope that this can clarify a little bit (see especially the text in blue).

Op donderdag 18 augustus 2022 om 15:00:00 UTC+2 schreef S.E.Mitchell:

knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 18, 2022, 3:13:56 PM8/18/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
> On Thursday, August 18, 2022 at 07:57:43 PM GMT+2, H P wrote:
> I can't use Linux anymore.

FYI only

On Microsoft Windows:

One possibility would be to download and install Oracle Virtual Box, 
download e.g. Ubuntu
and or Red Hat 
and install it and start it on Oracle Virtual box.
Then it acts like any other Microsoft Windows window.
That works very good.
Then download, 
unzip and run TSE Linux in it.

Peter Linehan

unread,
Aug 22, 2022, 6:18:08 AM8/22/22
to SemWare TSE Pro text editor
Right with your help I have got something that works.
TSE runs in a term window - so I set the colours of the term window in a profile. This give a good base to start from and then change some of the editing colours in TSE ( copied from my Windows platform and burnt in)

Also I tries in the GUI Link to Application: changed the command line to xterm ...path to tse
Changing Xterm size and colours is  an editing task from command line - I guess not many want to do that.
Or add a different terminal emulator - eg xfce4-terminal which allows colour changes from the menu.

So thats it for now - any breakthroughs I will posy again.
Many thanks.

NB H P the latest versions of Windows have a Linux application included so you could tun it from there - Not too sure about file permissions though.
But is you have Windows you have TSE native so no problem.

Cheers
Peter

knud van eeden

unread,
Aug 22, 2022, 10:36:33 AM8/22/22
to TSE Pro Support
> Basically a pale blue or greenish background with intense white text for the main body of the window

Goto TSE menu options > full configuration> Display/Color options > Set colors > Select color schemes > Blue 5

If choosing that color scheme

BLUE 5

should come very close is assumed.

See also attached picture

with friendly greetings
Knud van Eeden





--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.

S.E. Mitchell

unread,
Aug 23, 2022, 11:29:10 AM8/23/22
to TSEPro Support
I've been doing a little reading re: xterm and colors.
Apparently Linux may be able to support more colors than I am allowing.
I'll continue to investigate, to see if I can come up with something.
--
Sammy Mitchell


On Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 10:36 AM 'knud van eeden' via SemWare TSE Pro
text editor <sem...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> > Basically a pale blue or greenish background with intense white text for the main body of the window
>
> Goto TSE menu options > full configuration> Display/Color options > Set colors > Select color schemes > Blue 5
>
> If choosing that color scheme
>
> BLUE 5
>
> should come very close is assumed.
>
> See also attached picture
>
> with friendly greetings
> Knud van Eeden
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 03:41:19 PM GMT+2, Peter Linehan <pwl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
> If this has been asked before please could you direct me to where.
> I have ( and have had for a long time) TSE running on Windows. Now I want the same colourscheme On Linux.
>
> Basically a pale blue or greenish background with intense white text for the main body of the window.
>
> So how do I go about it because I cant seem to achieve it by just setting the colours in the options - There is no colour pallete available and none of the schemes offerd seem to give me anything near what I want.
>
> Any advice/help would be appreciated.
> AND A very big thanks for TSE - I used it for over 30 years (Qedit it was then)
>
>
> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/semware/72df22a4-d90b-4ef8-b5b9-ec36143bad15n%40googlegroups.com.
>
> --
>
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SemWare TSE Pro text editor" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to semware+u...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/semware/1129431899.1216329.1661178980538%40mail.yahoo.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages