This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

SIMPLELINK-MSP432-SDK: Installed CCS 11.2 on new drive - Howto Move CCS 9.3 Color Settings (theme) to 11.2?

Part Number: SIMPLELINK-MSP432-SDK

How to Move Saved Color Scheme for CCS 9.3 to New 11.2 Install?

I recently changes SSDs in my laptop and installed openSUSE 15.4 and Code Composer Studio 11.2.

My prior install was on openSUSE 15.0 with CCS 9.3. I had spent hours tweaking the color scheme to just my liking in CCS 9.3 and now I would like to move whatever settings file from 9.3 has those saved color settings to 11.2. I have looked and I can't find which file from 9.3 holds the saved color settings. On the old drive I have ~/.ti/ccs920 as well as files under ~/ti, but looking I can't tell if the color scheme is saved in either location and I don't want to just block copy the contents of ~/.ti/ccs920 over the new ~/.ti/ccs1120. (and risk messing something else up)

How can I move my color scheme from the CCS 9.3 install on my old drive to the CCS 11.2 install on the new drive?

(also, is there any way to update ALL projects with the new compiler version and simplelink_sdk version or do I have to do that for every project? (I have about 30))

  • How can I move my color scheme from the CCS 9.3 install on my old drive to the CCS 11.2 install on the new drive?

    I haven't tried to move the color scheme, but on a search the color scheme is part of the workspace preferences rather than the CCS installation. Where the workspace preferences are saved in the .metadata sub-directory of the workspace.

    If you can still open CCS 9.3 try using File -> Export and then select General -> Preferences:

    And the select either Export all or the subset which mention colors:

    Then save the .epf file is a text file containing the preferences. On CCS 11.2 use File -> Import and then General -> Preferences and select the .epf file you saved in CCS 9.3

    Also found the old Eclipse syntax highlighting preferences save and restore which says the export and then re-import of the Preferences didn't restore all the settings (might not be an issue on later issues of Eclipse). That stackoverflow thread has some suggestions on which *.prefs files to directly copy from one Eclipse workspace to another. There are *.prefs files for different languages. For CCS using the C based Eclipse CDT think the files to copy are:

    • <workspace_root>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.cdt.ui.prefs
    • <workspace_root>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.ui.editors.prefs
  • That sounds like an approach, but it may also run into an Eclipse version difference? The reason I say that, I had already moved my workspaces (containing the .metadata directory) to the new drive before starting CCS 11 for the first time. I have 2 workspaces WSMSP432 and WSRM46. Both were copied verbatim to the new drive. That worries me about preference compatibility. It woulds seem if they were in my workspace/.metadata directory, then CCS11 should have used them on startup?

    Yes, I can still boot either drive, so I can try an export and see if an import to 11.2 does anything different. Thanks for your help.

  • Chester's suggestions are what I would recommend.  Eclipse sprinkles around where preferences are stored.  Some are stored in the workspace others are stored per installation instance.  For example there are more in /eclipse/configuration/.settings/ (those can end up getting written to your user folder if the installation folder is not writable).

    Regards,

    John

  • Here is some more information. It appears that my settings were in fact moved with my workspace over to the new 11.2.0 install. However the colors are not being shown. What is even more odd, if I go to preferences->General->Editor->Text-Editor and toggle any setting and click "Apply" presto my color scheme is shown:

    The problem is, when I click "Apply & Close" then all my color settings are lost and the scheme reverts back to the default:

    I've been pulling my hair out trying to find why my color scheme choices are being overridden, but no luck so far. Why would my settings - shown in the colors dialog - be overridden when I choose "Apply & Close"?

  • Things may be totally messed up now. In the Fonts and Colors dialog, I switched from the "Dark" theme to "Code Composer Studio Dark" theme. The upon switching back, all my custom colors were gone.

    Since I have a number of projects that I have updated for 11.2.0 for the new compiler version and version of simplelink_sdk installed, I can no longer block-copy the `.metadata` from my 9.3 workspace to the 11.2.0 workspace without losing the new project configurations.

    I could copy only the folders within .metadata that only controls the CCS color scheme, but looking I have not been able to determine which individual folder(s) that would be under .metadata. Any Ideas on this issue as well?

  • Installed the drive with 9.3 on it and exported the preferences as suggested. That worked for "most" color settings, enough to make things a bit more readable for me. The last remaining issue is the background color. Despite having it set in Preferences->General->Editor->Text Editor, the setting will not take effect. If I toggle some color or [ ] system default, then the background color will be displayed in the editor, but as soon as I choose "Apply & Close", the color reverts back to #2f2f2f despite the setting being #202428, e.g.

    (the editor area shown at the top and to the right of the preferences dialog is the editor background of #2f2f2f, the slightly darker color below it is the inactive code background based on a preprocessor conditional excluding that code -- it is the right color)

    Why is the background color setting not sticking? Is this one of the C/C++ editor settings somewhere else that overrides the Editor->Text Editor background setting?

  • Note the StackOverflow Work-around linked above does not change the background color for text in C/C++. It may work for java, but despite setting the background color as described in the link, my background color is always displayed as #2f2f2f (47.47.47).

  • For me the background color seems to work fine by default.  It picks up that my mac is in dark mode automatically.

    I can see the same as you as far a resetting the color. Changed to Cyan to make it visible. I hit apply:

    Then after hitting apply and close.

    Seems like the Theme takes over.

    If I use a different theme in this case "System".  Which looks terrible.  If I change the background the change sticks:

    The above picture is using System but then I changed the background to black.  It took the change.

    That Eclipse bug likely impacts themes in different ways depending on what settings the theme is trying to control.

    John

  • Yes, I've found that out. I've gone blind trying to figure out what css tag is used for C/C++ background (I'd even settle for setting the plain text background and trying to find a way to override)

    At least the Eclipse folks know there has been a regression in the background coloring. It was a bit disturbing to read that they are stumped as to why... I've tried a lot of different tags to set the C/C++ background and I have made no headway. Frustrating, but at least we have a good idea where the problem lies.

  • Bingo - work-around found:

    Not sure which fixed it, but I edited /opt/ti/ccs1120/ccs/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.2.1300.v20210108-1832/css/dark/e4-dark_partstyle.css and set:

    .MPart Composite,
    .MPart Composite > *,
    .MPart Composite > * > *,
    .MPart Label,
    .MPart ScrolledForm,
    .MPart Form,
    .MPart Section,
    .MPart FormText,
    .MPart Link,
    .MPart Sash,
    .MPart Button,
    .MPart Group,
    .MPart SashForm,
    .MPart Tree,
    .MPart FilteredTree,
    .MPart RegistryFilteredTree,
    .MPart PageSiteComposite,
    .MPart DependenciesComposite,
    .MPart Text[style~='SWT.READ_ONLY'],
    .MPart FigureCanvas,
    .MPart ListEditorComposite,
    .MPart ScrolledComposite,
    .Mpart ScrolledComposite ProgressInfoItem,
    .MPart Form ScrolledPageBook,
    .MPart DependenciesComposite > SashForm > Section > * { /* Section > DependenciesComposite$... */
    /* background-color: #2F2F2F;
    color: #AAAAAA;
    */
    background-color: #202428;
    color: #CCCCCC;
    }

    And also edited /opt/ti/ccs1120/ccs/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.2.1300.v20210108-1832/css/dark/e4-dark_preferencestyle.css and set:

    'AbstractTextEditor.Color.Background=32,36,40'

    And the changes stuck.

    The little bit of additional contrast is much easier on older eyes.

  • Wow.  Nicely done figuring that out!

  • Goes under the category of "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while" :)