Herald (Vim Color Scheme)

My very own VIM color scheme. Featuring 256, 16 and 8 color support, high readability and... pretty colors!

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

I use Vim a lot. It's my editor of choice when I code (mainly in Ruby), and also when I write my blog post and articles (mainly in Textile).

One thing I always liked about Vim was it powerful syntax highlighting: there's probably a syntax highlighting file for every programming language ever created, even the new ones (Nimrod? Sure, here!).

Furthermore, Vim allows you to create color schemes, and that's surprisingly easy to do. Everything you need to do is in the docs, but that may put you off, so you can just start by editing an existing one — that's what I did.h3. InfiniteRed Black

I've been using the ir_black color scheme for near enough a year. It's an excellent color scheme, recommended especially for writing Ruby code:

I honestly thought this was the best Vim color scheme until I discovered Moria…

Moria ⇈

Recently I switched to moria, mainly because I find it easier on the eyes. It's a matter of taste, of course:

The trick is in the background: it's not completely black. Still, I didn't quite like the colors, so I decided to write my own…

Herald ⇈

Meet herald.vim (this is a direct link to the raw file, but you may also want to check my stash on GitHub or the script page on Vim.org):

To sum up, here's the features offered by this new color scheme:

It's easier to differentiate syntax elements; in particular reserved words like if or end, constants (symbols) and identifiers (instance variables).
Operators are highlighted and easier to notice.
Dark gray background and black column/row selectors.
Added highlight for titles (useful for Textile)
Comments do not stand out, unlike in most color schemes
Support for 256 color terminal (special thanks to Wolfgang Frisch for providing all the info and tools required)

So what do you think? Is it tool colorful perhaps? How would you improve it?