labs · green chaud · 2008
Green Chaud
Green Chaud was a colour theme for Aptana, the web development IDE, released on 11 March 2008. It set light text on a dark ground, which its page said was easier on the eyes than the standard theme, and it took its cue from three vim themes: Zenburn, Desert and Wombat. The dark code panels on this site use its colours, read straight out of the original theme files.
The palette
Aptana stored themes as one XML .col file per language. Across the CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP,
ScriptDoc and XML files, Green Chaud used a small, consistent set of colours:
- #3f3f3fbackground · 63/63/63
- #dedecbtext, braces, caret
- #7cb7f1keywords, CSS properties
- #8fe28fstrings and literals
- #f0eb8eidentifiers, regex
- #e77e7enumbers, !important
- #e38eb9null, true, false
- #7f7f7fcomments
- #809f80line numbers · 128/159/128
- #a3bcaeselection
The line-number colour couldn't be set from the theme files, so the instructions asked you to enter it by hand. The author's typeface, according to a reply on the page, was Consolas.
Installing it in 2008
There was no theme picker. You imported each .col file one at a time under
Window › Preferences › Aptana › Editors, once each for CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, ScriptDoc and XML,
then went to General › Editors › Text Editors to set the line-number foreground to 128/159/128. The page
called this "the boring task of the installation" and asked for help porting the theme to Aptana's Ruby on Rails,
Adobe AIR and iPhone plugins. By the end of 2015 it had 85 comments.
Using the colours today
Aptana's format loads nowhere current, and the original RAR and ZIP downloads are not hosted here. The colours are just numbers, though, and they translate directly. Here they are as CSS custom properties, the same values this site uses:
:root {
--gc-background: #3f3f3f; /* rgb(63, 63, 63) */
--gc-line: #454545; /* current-line highlight */
--gc-text: #dedecb;
--gc-keyword: #7cb7f1;
--gc-literal: #8fe28f;
--gc-identifier: #f0eb8e;
--gc-number: #e77e7e;
--gc-constant: #e38eb9;
--gc-comment: #7f7f7f;
--gc-gutter: #809f80; /* rgb(128, 159, 128) */
--gc-selection: #a3bcae;
}Dark themes are now the default in many editors, and Zenburn, one of Green Chaud's three models, is still widely used. Green Chaud's own mix, warmer than most, is the reason this site's panels look the way they do.
It’s been a few months since I planned to make public my Aptana color theme. After the last tweaks, here it is, the “Green Chaud” Aptana color theme !
It’s a light on dark theme, which is easier on the eyes than the standard theme.
I took some inspiration from vim’s Zenburn, Desert and Wombat themes.
All the default languages and the PHP are supported.
So, first you have to import every col file one by one in the options (Window > Preferences > Aptana > Editors > CSS / HTML / JavaScript / PHP / ScriptDoc / XML).
Then you’ll have to set the line numbers color by hand (if you are showing them) : Go in (Window > Preferences > General > Editors > Text Editors), and then set the color of “Line number foreground”. The RGB code of the color is 128 / 159 / 128.
This is the boring task of the installation … Now your new theme can be used, for the pleasure of your eyes.
Don’t hesitate to give your feedback in the comments.
If you want to contribute to this theme, you can adapt it for the other plugins (Ruby on Rails, Adobe AIR, Apple iPhone). In this case, contact me in the comments, and we’ll see that together.