Jump from 2.0.5 to 2.0.6 made completions in ipython/ptpython become unreadable

[sblask]

Just have a look at the screenshots

Before:

After:

You can have a look at my dotfiles https://github.com/sblask/dotfiles for details about my setup. I use xterm and tmux, the most relevant things regarding colors are probably in .Xresources.symlink and base16-eighties-modified.vim

[jonathanslenders]

Hi Sebastian,

Thank you for reporting the issue! Do you know whether it's still present when you remove/rename .Xresources.symlink? Right now I don't have a Linux desktop available, but I'll test later. This sounds like a bug.

Jonathan

[sblask]

Hi Jonathan,

The issue disappears when I remove the file or even just the xterm.*.termName: xterm-256color line. But I need the line to get the colours to work properly in general.

[pfheatwole]

I have the same issue. I'm using Gnome Terminal, but the results are identical to those xterm screenshots.

My hunch is that this related to base16-shell. Both @sblask and I are sourcing a 256 color scheme (I do it in my .bashrc, he does it in sblask/dotfiles/.zshrc.d.symlink/colors.zsh).

The base16-shell scripts "change your shell's default ANSI colors but most importantly, colors 17 to 21 of your shell's 256 colorspace". An example base16-shell color scheme is here.

According to the base16-gnome-terminal README, this is necessary because:

since base16 uses only 16-color themes, this results in all of the bright colors mirroring their non-bright colors, rather than being additional colors. If you use the 256 variations, you will also need to use the Base16 Shell script to maintain proper compatibility with the base16 themes.

I'm out of my depth here, but in the prompt_toolkit commit that skips mapping RBG to ANSI it has a comparison if i >= 16 on line 225. Could this issue be related to the fact that base16-shell is changing color codes 17-21, not just the first 16?

[tomyun]

I use base16-shell and also have exactly same issue. Seems like this is not exclusive to IPython, but any prompt-toolkit completion menu with default style would be rendered the same way.

Interestingly, passing swap_light_and_dark_colors=True to PromptSession makes the menu rendered correctly with white fg on gray bg, but then others become unreadable due to contrast.

[tomyun]

Setting c.TerminalInteractiveShell.true_color = True in ipython_config.py solved this issue for me.

[AdrienLemaire]

Using alacritty, tmux, base16-shell, ipython and a custom pygment theme.
This is the second time I'm landing on this issue, so adding more details for tmux users:

Setting c.TerminalInteractiveShell.true_color = True works only if true colors are set of TERM.
In my .tmux.conf, I needed to add

set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set -ag terminal-overrides ',alacritty:RGB' # set true colors for $TERM

This problem re-occured when I switched my alacritty TERM from xterm-256color to alacritty. the terminal-overrides then didn't work anymore with set -ag terminal-overrides ',xterm-256color:RGB' . Changing the tmux terminal-overrides fixed my ipython shell colors

[sblask]

I am now on MacOS and Terminal.app and still have the same problem. I tried @AdrienLemaire 's solution but I get dark grey on black which is not super readable and the current selection is not highlighted. Currently on prompt-toolkit 3.0.3.