Complete example of a package that is derived from Modus (Modus themes for GNU Emacs)

8.1.1 Complete example of a package that is derived from Modus ¶

For package developers, the following snippet needs to be included in each theme file (Complete example of a private theme derived from Modus):

;;;; Add themes from this package to the `custom-theme-load-path'
;;;###autoload
(when load-file-name
 (let ((dir (file-name-directory load-file-name)))
 (add-to-list 'custom-theme-load-path dir)))

If the package provides many themes, then the above snippet can be included in a shared file that is then loaded via require in the individual theme files.

For example, the family of themes that includes ‘prot-light-theme.el’ and ‘prot-dark-theme.el’ has a shared library which is ‘prot-themes.el’ and therein we find at least the following:

;; Package headers here for prot-themes.el...
;; Any other shared definitions...
;;;; Add themes from this package to the `custom-theme-load-path'
;;;###autoload
(when load-file-name
 (let ((dir (file-name-directory load-file-name)))
 (add-to-list 'custom-theme-load-path dir)))
(provide 'prot-themes)
;;; prot-themes.el ends here

Then each individual theme can look like this (Complete example of a custom theme with its own palette):

(require 'prot-themes)
(modus-themes-theme
 'prot-light
 'prot-themes
 "My demo `prot-light' theme."
 'light
 'modus-operandi-palette
 nil
 nil)

The contents of such a package will be of this form:

‘prot-themes.el’

Common file with all the shared definitions.

‘prot-light-theme.el’

The light theme.

‘prot-dark-theme.el’

The dark theme.

The shared file can be skipped if the only piece of common code is the aforementioned snippet about the custom-theme-load-path. Simply add that snippet to the bottom of each theme file, like this:

(modus-themes-theme
 'prot-light
 'prot-themes
 "My demo `prot-light' theme."
 'light
 'modus-operandi-palette
 nil
 nil)
;;;###autoload
(when load-file-name
 (let ((dir (file-name-directory load-file-name)))
 (add-to-list 'custom-theme-load-path dir)))

The package is then a collection of ‘NAME-theme.el’ files and nothing more.

In principle, a package derived from Modus does not need to define any commands or user options. What is shown in this section is enough. Packages such as the ef-themes and standard-themes are exceptions because they existed for years before they were based on Modus and must remain backward compatible.

Arrange to activate your derivative themes.

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