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A few years ago, in 2014, Eclipse IDE announced that it will ship a default dark theme. In 2014, many of restrictions existed in the CSS and SWT styling of the Eclipse workspace and the result was not very usable. But the Eclipse platform team wanted to lay the foundation for improvements without the requirement to install external components to test and to drive these improvements. The releases following the initial release constantly improved the capabilities of the underlying CSS engine and the SWT toolkit to enhance the user experience.

1. Mojave Gtk Theme. Mojave is a Mac OSX like theme for GTK 3, GTK 2 and Gnome-Shell which supports GTK 3 and GTK 2 based desktop environments like Gnome, Pantheon, XFCE, Mate, etc.
2. RELATED: macOS Finally Gets a Proper Dark Mode. It’s called NSWindowDarkChocolate. It’s likely an experimental precursor to Dark Mode proper, and it’s not great: many applications don’t change at all when you enable it, and some, such as the Finder, only change partially, as seen above. Tab titles in Safari are basically unreadble.

With Eclipse Photon, we are shipping the best support for the dark theme so far. Continue to read to learn about the improvements in the platform and in the second part, how plug-in developers can enable their Eclipse contributions for the dark theme.

Try it out

Someone once said, that all the cool kids are using a dark theme these days. If you want to join this club, simply type 'Dark' into the Quick Access box and press enter. This brings you to the correct preference page. Select Dark, press Apply and Close (and restart your IDE to fully apply the theme).

Selected Dark theme improvements in 4.8

Sometimes the small things do matter. Eclipse 4.8 continues to improve the default text editor. The Eclipse default dark theme now includes styling for the text editor's range indicator and uses transparency for the expand and collapse buttons.

To improve readability in the dark theme, bold style usage has been reduced in the Java editor and some colors that were too close to each other have been altered.

Lots of icons have been adjusted to look better in both the light as well as the dark theme.

For example, the block selection, word wrap and show whitespace icons have been adjusted.

Before:

After:

Popup dialogs, for example the platform's update notification popup, now use a dark background and a light foreground color in the dark theme.

The same work has been done for the Javadoc popup which makes the dialog much easier to read in the dark theme. Support for other languages will most likely pick this up for the next release, e.g., the PHP team is working on this in https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=534520.

Links now consistently use a light blue color in the dark theme. One example where this was very visible is the PDE's manifest editor.

The colors of links in code element information control now take the color settings of the Hyperlink text color and the Active hyperlink text color from the Colors & Fonts preference page into account. The readability in the dark theme has been improved a lot by this.

Before:

After:

Also multiple extensions like the Gradle tooling for Eclipse have improved their styling.

For example, this is how the Gradle preference page looked before Photon.

This page is nicely styled in the Photon release.

The Gradle tooling initially designed a relatively complex solution to support the dark theme. The final solution is really simple (see https://github.com/eclipse/buildship/pull/688) and the next chapter is designed to help other plug-in developers to apply the same solution for their plug-ins.

Guide for plug-in developers to contribute to the default dark theme

Plug-in developers can easily support the dark theme as any plug-in can contribute to the default dark theme.

Filezilla Dark Theme Machine

To contribute a CSS file to the dark theme, you can write an extension in your plugin.xml similar to the following. The refid='org.eclipse.e4.ui.css.theme.e4_dark' points to the platform dark theme and tells the CSS engine to extend it.

If you have a custom control, for example MyControl, you can style it for example with the following entry in the 'your_dark_extensions.css' file

If MyControl is a subclass of Control, the existing CSS handler for Control and the properties background-color and color will call its setForeground and setBackground method on instances of this widget.

As for colors and icons, plug-in developers should avoid hard-coded colors and use png icons with a transparent background to look good in the light as well as in the dark theme.

One way to allow styling of colors is to use preferences or even use the colors and fonts extension point for the platform as described in the following blog post: http://blog.eclipse-tips.com/2008/08/adding-color-and-font-preferences.html

Styling preference via CSS is very simple. Use the IEclipsePreferences#your-preference-node to select the preference node you want to set. Only replace '.' with '-' for your preference node. You cannot use “.” as these have a predefined meaning in CSS. The Eclipse CSS engine will convert the underscores to the correct preference node. If styling colors and fonts from the platform extension point, you must also add a pseudo-select (in the following example :org-eclipse-jdt-ui) to avoid overridden CSS preference settings from other plug-ins.

Here is an example from JDT UI for styling its colors, which will contribute to the org.eclipse.ui.workbench preference node.

IEclipsePreferences#org-eclipse-ui-workbench:org-eclipse-jdt-ui { /* pseudo attribute added to allow contributions without replacing this node, see Bug 466075 */

Available tools for CSS work

To analyze or to test CSS snippets you can use the CSS spy and the CSS scratch pad. Install the spies via the following update site: http://download.eclipse.org/e4/snapshots/org.eclipse.e4.tools/latest/

The CSS spy allows the selection of a UI component and show (and sometimes) change their properties.

To test CSS snippets use CSS scratchpad, also available on the above update site. For example, open the “CSS Scratchpad” view via the Quick Access and use the following:

This will style the running IDE similar to the following.

Last but not least, it allows the preference spy to trace changes in the preferences to find the correct preference node and value to style it.

For more information on the spys and the CSS styling see http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/EclipsePlatformDevelopment/article.html#eclipse_ide_spies and http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/Eclipse4CSS/article.html.

Future work

Of course, the platform team continues to work on the dark theme. Most interesting for Windows users is the work in Bug 508634 which would allow users to set the background and foreground color for (read-only) combo-box which are frequently used in the Eclipse IDE. But again lots of small annoyances will be addressed for the next release, which will arrive only 3 months later after the Photon release.

Good news for the dark theme is that several platform developers, including the author of this article, have switched to the dark theme for their daily work. This also means that the remaining issues with the dark theme are more easily discovered and faster fixed.

How can you help as a user?

Tools like Git, Gradle, and Maven for Eclipse already provide good support for the dark theme and we expect that this support will grow in the future, especially now that plug-in developers have a small guide how to support it. Patches to support the dark theme are also relatively simple (plugin.xml registration of the CSS file and a corresponding CSS file).

So if you are a dark theme user, please open bugs for the components which do not yet support the dark theme. Or even better provide a snippet which you validated via the CSS spy or CSS scratch pad so that the plug-in developers can apply it. Also plug-ins which are still using old gifs (which do not support real transparency), will most likely be happy about contributions of svg version of their icons, so that they can generate png and HDPI png files from them.

Dark Theme Yahoo

Conclusion

So hopefully you enjoy the improved dark theme in Eclipse Photon. Like I said earlier, all the cool kids are using a dark theme these days. ;-)

• By

An FTP client gives you a graphical way to interact with files on your server, which comes in really handy when you’re managing a WordPress website (or other types of websites, too!).

Looking for the best FTP client to manage files on your server? In this post, we’ve collected five great FTP clients for all operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux.

Note: While we’re calling these the ‘best FTP clients’, all of these programs do, of course, support the much more secure SFTP connection method. You should always connect over SFTP instead of FTP whenever possible.

Best Free FTP Clients

For most users, a free FTP client will totally get the job done, so don’t feel as though you need to crack open your wallet just to get a solid FTP program.

In terms of interface design, the free clients don’t always have the most beautiful experience, but, functionality wise, a free client should be able to do everything you need it to (and then some).

WinSCP (Windows)

(click to enlarge)

WinSCP is one of the most popular free FTP programs for Windows users.

It offers two different interfaces — an orthodox file manager ‘Commander Interface’, where you’ll see local files on the left and remote files on the right. Or, an ‘Explorer Interface’, where you’ll only see your remote files. For reference, the screenshot above depicts the ‘Commander Interface’.

Of the free FTP clients, I’d say WinSCP has one of the best-looking interfaces — and the ability to choose between the two different interface approaches is quite convenient.

To connect, you can use FTP, FTPS, SCP, SFTP, WebDAV or S3 protocols. And if you want to store connection details, WinSCP encrypts your passwords and lets you set a master password to unlock stored connections.

Other helpful features include:

• Integrated code editor to help you to make changes
• Workspace saving (e.g. save multiple sites you’re connected to for easy reuse later)
• File queue
• File resume

FileZilla (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Filezilla For Mac Download

Along with WinSCP, FileZilla is one of the most popular options when it comes to free FTP clients, and it’s also cross-platform with support for Windows, Mac and Linux.

However, unlike WinSCP, there’s some controversy with FileZilla. Some people don’t like that its SourceForge installer comes with bundled offers (e.g. it tries to get you to install other programs). I personally use FileZilla (installed from the project’s site — not SourceForge) and have never had an issue with malware. However, you should be aware of what some people say, as this is a popular criticism.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the details…

First off, FileZilla’s interface definitely looks a little dated, especially when compared with WinSCP:

(click to enlarge)

But it has a good list of features, including:

• File transfer resume
• Tabbed interface
• Master password to store connection details (FileZilla used to be bad about securely storing passwords, but it now lets you encrypt stored passwords behind your master password)
• Remote file searching

Beyond the free version, there’s also a $19.99 Pro version that adds support for other protocols, including Amazon S3, Google Cloud/Drive, Microsoft Azure and so on.

Cyberduck (Windows, Mac)

Cyberduck is a popular free FTP client that works on both Windows and Mac. In addition to supporting FTP and SFTP, Cyberduck also supports a number of other protocols including:

• Amazon S3
• WebDAV
• Google Cloud
• Azure
• Cloud storage services (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc)

In terms of interface, Cyberduck is much more minimal than both WinSCP and Filezilla. By default, it only shows you an explorer view of your server, and it opts to put the file transfer queue into a separate popup:

(click to enlarge)

So, if you like having that dual-pane view with a local file browser as WinSCP and FileZilla offer, you’ll probably want to pick a different FTP program.

To edit files, Cyberduck lets you choose your preferred text editor, which lets you work in a familiar interface. And it also includes other nice features, such as file resume and synchronization.

Best Premium FTP Clients

Coincidentally, both of the premium FTP clients are for Mac only. While you can certainly find premium options for Windows, there’s really not much that differentiates them from WinSCP or the other free options.

In fact, in doing lots of research on social media for this post, I didn’t come across a single person who recommended a premium Windows FTP client (though there were plenty of recommendations for the following two Mac FTP clients).

Transmit (Mac)

When it comes to premium FTP programs for Mac users, Transmit is definitely the most well-known option. It comes from Panic Inc, which is the same team behind other popular tools such as the Coda editor.

The first thing you’ll notice is the interface. It just, well, seems way nicer than pretty much every free FTP program with its clean, simple looks:

(click to enlarge)

In addition to core protocols such as FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and S3, Transmit also includes support for 11 cloud services including Google Drive, Dropbox and more.

The latest version — Transmit 5 — offers big speed improvements, and it also has helpful features such as:

• File sync
• Batch rename files
• Two-factor login to secure connection details (including support for YubiKey)

Price: $45

Forklift (Mac)

After Transmit, Forklift is probably the next most popular premium option for Mac users.

Two of the big reasons why people seem to like Forklift are its speed and its dark mode interface.

Beyond that, Forklift supports most popular protocols, including SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and others.

The interface uses a nice dual-pane view, and it also includes a feature that lets you preview files right in Forklift. For example, you can view pictures or watch videos without the need to download a file. That probably won’t come in handy every day, but it’s a neat feature:

(click to enlarge)

Other helpful features include:

• File sync
• Choose your preferred editor to edit files
• File search
• Workspaces (e.g. save multiple connection tabs and reopen them later)
• Add tags to help organize files
• Bulk rename files

Price: $29.95

Bonus: File Manager WordPress Plugin

Okay, the File Manager plugin definitely isn’t a full FTP client. But I’m including it as a bonus because if you’re using WordPress it may be able to get you the functionality you need from right inside your WordPress dashboard.

Essentially, File Manager lets you manage your WordPress site’s server’s files from a new WP File Manager tab in your WordPress dashboard. Without leaving your dashboard, you can:

• Edit
• Delete
• Upload
• Download
• Copy
• Etc

(click to enlarge)

So, if you just want to do some simple file management on your server, this could be one to consider. Just make sure your WordPress admin account is locked down tight, because anyone with admin access will be able to directly edit files on your server.

File Manager has a free version at WordPress.org, as well as a $25 Pro version.

Wrap Up: What’s the Best FTP Client?

While usually there are clear-cut reasons to choose between a free and a premium offering, this decision really just comes down to your preferences, as even the free options should be able to do everything most users need.

WinSCP and FileZilla are great free options if you like the dual-pane approach of seeing both your local and remote files in the interface (though again, make sure you get a clean FileZilla installer).

On the other hand, if you prefer only seeing the remote files on your server, Cyberduck has a really clean interface, is free, and works on both Windows and Mac.

If you’re using a Mac, the two premium options — Transmit and Forklift — both offer really nice interfaces, as well as extra nice-to-have features such as two-factor authentication (Transmit) and detailed file preview (Forklift).

Know of any other top FTP clients for Mac and/or Windows? Any preferences?

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