IDLE: use theme colors for help viewer

[terryjreedy]

BPO	34774
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @csabella
PRs	gh-78955: Use user-selected color theme for Help => IDLE Doc #9502

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/terryjreedy'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2018-09-23.05:34:58.811>
labels = ['3.8', 'expert-IDLE', 'type-feature', '3.7']
title = 'IDLE: use theme colors for help viewer'
updated_at = <Date 2018-09-23.13:02:05.464>
user = 'https://github.com/terryjreedy'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-09-23.13:02:05.464>
actor = 'cheryl.sabella'
assignee = 'terry.reedy'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['IDLE']
creation = <Date 2018-09-23.05:34:58.811>
creator = 'terry.reedy'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 34774
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['326133', '326135', '326136', '326151']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'cheryl.sabella']
pr_nums = ['9502']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue34774'
versions = ['Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8']

Linked PRs

• [3.12] gh-78955: Use user-selected color theme for Help => IDLE Doc (GH-9502) #118632

[terryjreedy]

Follow-up to #78729. Use user-selected color theme for Help => IDLE Help. (Patch coming.)

[terryjreedy]

If HelpText is ever subclassed from a view text class, the color_config and call will be deleted. But changing the two fixed colors will be needed in any case.

The background option in
self.tag_configure('pre', font=(fixedfont, 12), background='#f6f6ff')
was intended to give fixed-pitch words a very light bluish background, but I cannot see any difference, so deleting it is no loss.

For the pre block, "background='#eeffcc'" gives the block a yellow background that matches the one used in online docs, as viewed by me with Firefox. So it is made conditional on the foreground color being the default solid black (which is different from tk's 'black').

Border colors appear to be fixed at some black, making the border invisible on a black or near-black background. But it does not seem worthwhile to try to decide when to omit it.

[terryjreedy]

I have tested this on Windows with both light and dark themes.

[csabella]

This is working on Ubuntu. Probably not a big deal, but because the help viewer is not modal, it's possible to change the theme with the help window open and the text isn't updated on the help window. If the help is closed and reopened, then the new theme appears.