When debugging in R2021b, the current line is highlighted in light green making it impossible to read the line when the text color is light and background is dark.

This happens only when the function being viewed is above in the call-stack from the one at which execution has stopped.

Any idea how this color might be changed?

EDIT:

See below an example showing how to reproduce this problem, this time with the default colors:

[Simão Pedro da Graça Oliveira Marto]

In addition, lines in the call stack other than the one selected will have a light gray colour, which has the same problem, to a lesser extent:

[Alex Ogren]

I'm experiencing the same issue - so far I have not found a way to change these debugger line highlight colors.

[Minh Lam]

Same issue for me

[Borja Errasti]

Same issue here.

No solution yet?

[Amit Hochman]

None that I know of.

[Ben Thomas]

Same problem here

[Steven Gaj]

Same issue here

Answer 1

[Rik]

The line highlight has been changed to a much darker shade of green in R2022a. This leaves code readible if you have set your font color to something light.

So there isn't a solution in R2021b, but R2022a will get you what you need.

[Amit Hochman]

Thanks, I'm glad they fixed it.

[Steven Gaj]

Thanks for the update.

Answer 2

[dpb]

Under preferences, "Editor/Debugger" the checkbox "Highlight Current Line" has the option to select the highlight color.

[Amit Hochman]

The option you mention does not solve the problem, I’m afraid. It changes the color of the highlighted line in the editor, i.e., the line at which the cursor is. But when debugging, the line at which the execution is stopped is highlighted. When the file being viewed is different from the one the call-stack pointer is pointing to, this green color is used. I cannot find anywhere an option to change the color. Or disable the feature altogether.

[dpb]

I can't reproduce that behavior here -- if I set that highlight color, the line is highlighted with that color regardless which file I have focus in.

I do not use a dark background in the editor, however; I can't stand that... :)

You can always uncheck the "Highlight" box itself as a brute force measure.

Which release of MATLAB are you on? I've R2021b here now, but I don't recall ever seeing anything different than I see here now...then again, I never use a dark background in the MATLAB editor, either.

[Amit Hochman]

This only happens in R2021b, and only when debugging and stepping through the call-stack as I wrote before.

[dpb]

I guess I don't understand how you get there...I've got a debug session open and can move all over all files and see no green highlighting.

[Amit Hochman]

I’ll edit the question to make it clearer.

[Paul Hoffrichter]

I have the same problem. If A calls B, and I am stepping through B, then the next line to execute has a green arrow and the background color is set correctly. But while still stepping through B, if I look at A, then there is the expected white arrow (as shown in the OP's picture), but, for me, that white-arrow line has a background that I do not know how to set. The result is that I cannot see the text in that line.

The work-around is for me to highlight the line with the cursor, and then all my text of any color becomes white with a blue background.

[RAF]

The highlighting follows user specification for the most recent call on the stack, but all predecessor calls appear with a mysterious MATLAB-default highlighting. In the attached image, the caller line is blindingly highlighted in the default shading while the callee line is subtly highlighted per user preference. The unreadable default highlighting is, by the way, visible all the rest of the way up the stack. Curiously, the highlighting for me is not pale green, but a gray value (RGB DCDCDC hex). This difference with previous posts may suggest that there is some offsetting relative to another unknown, but--perhaps--user specified preference or window-manager setting, though I have no grays in my MATLAB scheme.

By the way, the editor's current-line highlighting only reflects the cursor position, not the execution position, which just coincidentally happens to be instantly set to the same line when stopped at a breakpoint or stepping during debugging. In other words, during a breakpoint pause, one can tap on any line in the file and move the current-line highlighting pointed out by @dpb, leaving only the dark green filled arrow and overline, but with unhighlighted text at the execution point. That being noted, it is likely that there is no explicit user preference for call-stack highlighting. As you can see, though, there should be.

[Andrea De Polis]

I do have the same, very annoying issue. I can see the highlighted lines only by highlighing them with the cursor.