Re: [community-group] Native modes and theming support (#210)

Hey, just wanted to chime in here as well.

I really love the idea of being able to `extend` other files. GitHub was already mentioned before as we have a somewhat complex system with 9 themes.

The way we currently have them set up is like this:

- 1 `dark default` theme and 1 `light default` theme
  - a `dark dimmed` theme that inherits from `dark default` and overrides a lot of tokens
  - a `dark high contrast` and a `light high contrast` both of which inherit from the default themes and override a good amount of tokens
  - a `tritanopia` and a `deuteranopia / protanopia` theme for light and dark mode. Those are identical to the defaults and only change tokens that rely on specific colors like green or red
  
We have out tokens split up into many files including:
- all the overrides mentioned above in a file per theme
- base color scales are in a specific file
- component tokens have their own file
- and some more

Having all of them in one file would be a nightmare to maintain, so it is important to be able to use files and merge them together in an individual way.

I also want to warn about the idea that _design token files are created by software_. I know some folks think this but in reality, this is often not true. 
First of all, the software is not there yet. Often there are some limits that mean that we need to at least edit files by hand later on.
Second, even if software would be able to create all tokens in a way we need it, people will have to approve PRs to token files. They are a very crucial part of the software we build after all. Looking through a giant file with multiple themes makes PRs harder to approve.

## TL;DR
- files must be easy to edit by hand (it still happens a lot)
- users should be able to define themes and tokens across multiple files and merge them later
  - this includes having one file per theme
  - also includes having a file for component tokens and one for base scales


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Received on Tuesday, 25 April 2023 07:22:31 UTC