Sloan's Inbox: Should You Trust Developers Who Use Light Mode? π
Sloan the DEV Moderator on June 06, 2024
Hey y'all! Sloan, DEV Moderator and mascot. I'm back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. π¦₯
For those unfamiliar with the se...
I'm a friendly, non-dev, cisgender guy from NC who enjoys playing music/making noise, hiking, eating veggies, and hanging out with my best friend/wife + our 3 kitties + 1 greyhound.
Co-founder of KrΓΆner & Starke. Web design, development and AI for Swiss and German businesses. I write about websites, UX and psychology. Traveller, powerlifter and skydiver.
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An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
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UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
As a user who switches back and forth between the modes for accessibility concerns, the number of tools that don't accommodate both appearance is far too high. And some don't do a great job either way β I'm looking at you, Redux DevTools, with your default color scheme that provides worse contrast ratios than a 1997 LCD laptop display.
One of the quirks that does catch me is leaving a large number of breakpoints in your browser. It's something small, but it slows down troubleshooting if you leave them active β both because you might end up clicking through them and because code runs slower when it has breakpoints active β and it clutters the breakpoint list and obscures what is actually being tested even when they are disabled. It's minor, but it's something I notice.
This bugs me - the fact there's no way to clear all breakpoints in Chrome. You can turn breakpoints on and off individually or globally, but you can't hit a button to clear them all and start over.
There isn't a button, but you can right-click one of the breakpoints in the list and choose to Disable all, Remove other, or Remove all breakpoints. I believe this only works for line-of-code breakpoints, not the other types.
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
I just use bootstrap 5.3 , css and js , and use a bg-dark theme for each element.
Then you could make a button out of that selector if you choose too.
-- Don't let a browser slow you down, from developing on the browser. --
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
I'm a friendly, non-dev, cisgender guy from NC who enjoys playing music/making noise, hiking, eating veggies, and hanging out with my best friend/wife + our 3 kitties + 1 greyhound.
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
You should. It makes perfect sense to use light mode since most of the websites and apps still don't have native dark mode support and light-to-dark-mode browser extensions aren't perfect.
The change between a dark page and a light page is very jarring... from what I hear. I'm not a light mode user (or am I?)
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
p.s. -- Dark theme is used for people whos eyes hurt from staring at the screen for double digit hours ,
Why ?
Because they work on code instead of silly games.
--- If someone doesn't trust me because I am making a decision for my own physical well being ,
then that is certainly not a good thing for my own physical well being , isn't it?
In following ,
-- If someone posts an entire page on the options of a bootstrap 5.3 feature ,
-- That's probably a sign of a noob.
People , Don't follow noobs. I'll do my own article on it later.
Funny enough, we had this discussion jokingly a couple of weeks ago because all devs in our team work with dark mode and I converted everyone to the dark reader browser plugin which does a pretty good job on most websites :)
What bugs me as a behavior:
writing a todo/fixme in the code which could easily just be done in a couple of minutes. Just do it right away.
not automating stuff which is repeated tons of times - e.g. if I write a todo in my code, I append the according story number. I wrote an ide script to do this story number adding automatically. I actually doubt developers who don't feel the need to automate this small stuff because it keeps your head free for your actual work. And you miss the expertise and the confidencd if you have to automatise something complicated/big.
Not learning a new shortcut for your IDE every other day would be another example.
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
For a IDE in html , you can jsut add bootstrap CSS and JS at the top , and set a background theme to dark on the html class.
Try it and see how it works for you - getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/customiz...
Yes, I trust it, I think that a developer's personal resource does not interfere with being a good or bad developer. More by choice. I use dark mode, not for the sake of it, but I work in the morning and in the afternoon, and at night I study. Having the light mode on makes my eyes very uncomfortable.
You know who I wouldn't trust? A dev who wears glasses and hasn't at least tried light mode.
I have astigmatism and I can dealt with so much less eye strain since I switched to using light mode during the say, dark mode at night, and setting a high enough font size.
Honestly the 'quirk' I'm most likely to judge someone one is worrying too much about settings, customization, and 'optimizing their setup'.
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
Your a super lame developer and obviously racist against white people because yo obviously have no idea on how to use a simple color pallet.
Please stop posting wasteful content so people waste their lives reading it , thx.
Please stop with your lame and fake installments , it degrades the quality of the environment on this platform.
_If you want to be cute , go play on tik-tok , this is a place for professionals.
Web developer, and sometimes Linux admin. I work mostly with PHP and Symfony, not so often with JavaScript / Typescript with React or Vue. And when I have time, I'm trying to get into mobile apps.
Not always is a matter of choice, so your trust should not depend on light or dark modes.
I personally prefer dark modes everywhere. But the problem is, not all websites and softwares have a dark theme. I know there are browser plugins that force black themes, but on some sites it just does not look good, on some others it's really weird. And desktop software don't have plugins at all.
That said, I use a light theme. Light, not white. It's not always black or white π and the reason is, using black themes and then switching to light websites just hurts me enough to have headaches, or makes me feel tired before closing my daily work. If I use a light theme, I don't have any problem working 8+ hours in front of a computer. So it's just a matter of health, not aesthetics.
Yes, I trust it, I think that a developer's personal resource does not interfere with being a good or bad developer. More by choice. I use dark mode, not for the sake of it, but I work in the morning and in the afternoon, and at night I study. Having the light mode on makes my eyes very uncomfortable.
An old - school cyberteck sort of chad , who works with javascript and web applications in a variety of settings. -
I provide tech support, and software through my business @https://techsport.app
Location
Louisville , Ky
Education
UofL , Comptia A++ , NSA Professional Certified , IBM Certified Enterprise Engineer
Dark reader is a good chrome plugin to dark mode everything. Light mode devs must have super eyes or something I don't get how you can stare directly into a fleshlight all night long
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I don't trust dark theme users - bugs hide in the dark π
But the light attract the bugs in the first place π
Haha, that was too good!
Damnnnnnnn :DD
Good one π
THIS WEBSITE USES DARK THEME , omg talk about hypocritical.
As a user who switches back and forth between the modes for accessibility concerns, the number of tools that don't accommodate both appearance is far too high. And some don't do a great job either way β I'm looking at you, Redux DevTools, with your default color scheme that provides worse contrast ratios than a 1997 LCD laptop display.
One of the quirks that does catch me is leaving a large number of breakpoints in your browser. It's something small, but it slows down troubleshooting if you leave them active β both because you might end up clicking through them and because code runs slower when it has breakpoints active β and it clutters the breakpoint list and obscures what is actually being tested even when they are disabled. It's minor, but it's something I notice.
This bugs me - the fact there's no way to clear all breakpoints in Chrome. You can turn breakpoints on and off individually or globally, but you can't hit a button to clear them all and start over.
There isn't a button, but you can right-click one of the breakpoints in the list and choose to Disable all, Remove other, or Remove all breakpoints. I believe this only works for line-of-code breakpoints, not the other types.
This isn't the case in my Chrome:
Sorry, I should have been more clear. It's in the sidebar, not directly in the Source.
I just use bootstrap 5.3 , css and js , and use a bg-dark theme for each element.
Then you could make a button out of that selector if you choose too.
-- Don't let a browser slow you down, from developing on the browser. --
No.
I would say that there's always time for light mode users to come to the light side -- the light side being dark mode, of course.
facts
Hell no, same way I can't trust people who watch dubbed anime. Just weird behaviour.
Always feels like I'm watching an abomination π. It turns the anime into basic cartoons which is so annoying. It's sub or nothing π―
Lol, comment of the day right here!
Donβt trust anyone. Theyβre all posers β either dark or light... Nobody should see your mode. This is the way.
facts
You should. It makes perfect sense to use light mode since most of the websites and apps still don't have native dark mode support and light-to-dark-mode browser extensions aren't perfect.
The change between a dark page and a light page is very jarring... from what I hear. I'm not a light mode user (or am I?)
Iβm 62. I use light mode.
Deal with it.
follow earned.
p.s. -- Dark theme is used for people whos eyes hurt from staring at the screen for double digit hours ,
Why ?
Because they work on code instead of silly games.
--- If someone doesn't trust me because I am making a decision for my own physical well being ,
then that is certainly not a good thing for my own physical well being , isn't it?
In following ,
-- If someone posts an entire page on the options of a bootstrap 5.3 feature ,
-- That's probably a sign of a noob.
People , Don't follow noobs. I'll do my own article on it later.
Good day.
No. No. No no no NOOOOO!
Funny enough, we had this discussion jokingly a couple of weeks ago because all devs in our team work with dark mode and I converted everyone to the dark reader browser plugin which does a pretty good job on most websites :)
What bugs me as a behavior:
For a IDE in html , you can jsut add bootstrap CSS and JS at the top , and set a background theme to dark on the html class.
Try it and see how it works for you - getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/customiz...
Yes, I trust it, I think that a developer's personal resource does not interfere with being a good or bad developer. More by choice. I use dark mode, not for the sake of it, but I work in the morning and in the afternoon, and at night I study. Having the light mode on makes my eyes very uncomfortable.
Lol
Developers who use dark mode need to get outside more...during the day.
I don't trust developers who don't use a Solarized theme.
You know who I wouldn't trust? A dev who wears glasses and hasn't at least tried light mode.
I have astigmatism and I can dealt with so much less eye strain since I switched to using light mode during the say, dark mode at night, and setting a high enough font size.
Honestly the 'quirk' I'm most likely to judge someone one is worrying too much about settings, customization, and 'optimizing their setup'.
Your a super lame developer and obviously racist against white people because yo obviously have no idea on how to use a simple color pallet.
Please stop posting wasteful content so people waste their lives reading it , thx.
Please stop with your lame and fake installments , it degrades the quality of the environment on this platform.
_If you want to be cute , go play on tik-tok , this is a place for professionals.
Good day sir.
Not always is a matter of choice, so your trust should not depend on light or dark modes.
I personally prefer dark modes everywhere. But the problem is, not all websites and softwares have a dark theme. I know there are browser plugins that force black themes, but on some sites it just does not look good, on some others it's really weird. And desktop software don't have plugins at all.
That said, I use a light theme. Light, not white. It's not always black or white π and the reason is, using black themes and then switching to light websites just hurts me enough to have headaches, or makes me feel tired before closing my daily work. If I use a light theme, I don't have any problem working 8+ hours in front of a computer. So it's just a matter of health, not aesthetics.
Yes, I trust it, I think that a developer's personal resource does not interfere with being a good or bad developer. More by choice. I use dark mode, not for the sake of it, but I work in the morning and in the afternoon, and at night I study. Having the light mode on makes my eyes very uncomfortable.
Madi Sports
I trust them. At least they're not a vampire.
....... Seriously ?
Dude , fr , why yo gotta go there ?
I literally am a vampire who uses dark theme ....
and .... well.. Cmon man....... That's just a little offensive ok ?
you don't gotta be like that . . . .
... Well ,
--- I don't trust crappy written articles, with pointless baseless questions/
Dark reader is a good chrome plugin to dark mode everything. Light mode devs must have super eyes or something I don't get how you can stare directly into a fleshlight all night long
Solarized theme + tabs indent here. Both are backed by science + personal experience.
The community is finally switching to tabs (prettier v3) so good light modes should be next.
As a developer who prefers light mode in many apps, I can tell you that you shouldn't trust a developer that uses light mode.
developers who canβt touch type. i wouldnβt say i donβt trust them, thatβs ridiculous, but it does lower my initial impression.
A silly question unless completely not serious. I use both depending on the context.
i remember i stopped visiting dev.to due to the lack of dark them,
So yeah i did subconsciously judged dev.to , my reasoning a was if they are serious they should have a dark theme ;)
OFC NOT! Only dark theme allowed. White hurt your eyes too!