Customizing Color Scheme Files

Each of the standard color schemes is defined in a separate file in the mmlibs/schemes subdirectory of the installation resources directory. By convention, color scheme files have the extension .sch. The schemes are called by Maestro using the file scheme.res, which is in the installation resources directory. You can customize color schemes from Maestro in the Color Schemes settings section of the Preferences Panel. If you want to edit the files directly, or create an entire set of custom color schemes, you can do so as follows.

To define your own color schemes:

1. Create a scheme.res file in your Maestro user resources directory, or copy scheme.res from the installation resources directory and edit it.

2. Create a schemes subdirectory in your Maestro user resources directory.

3. Create color scheme files scheme.sch in the schemes subdirectory, or copy the .sch files from the schemes subdirectory of the installation resources directory and edit them.

The scheme.res file contains a three-line description of each scheme. The three lines contain:

1. The short name of the color scheme, used in the colorscheme command
2. The display name of the color scheme, used in Maestro menus and lists
3. The name of the file in the schemes subdirectory that contains the scheme definition

Comments can be included in this file by putting a "#" at the beginning of each line that contains a comment (the "#" must be in the first column). The short names and the display names of the standard color schemes are listed below.

You can add color schemes for general use by editing the files that define Maestro's standard schemes. There are some restrictions: the "element_custom" schemes cannot be edited or copied, as the color is dymamically chosen, and the schemes are keyed off a single color scheme (.sch) file rather than separate files. These schemes are enclosed in square brackets in scheme.res under the parent schemes, element_customC and element_customL.

The color scheme files contain a number of rules, one rule per line, which are applied in the order they appear in the file. Each rule consists of the name of a color as it appears in the colors.res file in the installation resources directory or the 6-digit hexadecimal RGB code for the color; an ASL specification that describes which atoms are to have that color, and an optional description. Color names must be a single token; if the color names have an embedded space, they must be quoted (for example: "spring green"). At the end of the file, you can add a description of the color scheme by adding a line with the word DESCRIPTION and following it with any number of lines that contain the description.

Here is an example of a possible color scheme:

white atom.ele *
blue	atom.ele N
red	atom.ele O

This scheme first sets all atoms to white, then colors all the nitrogen atoms blue and the oxygen atoms red. Any number of such rules can be included in color scheme files.