Really? I never had that problem. I started out using Notepad++'s default coloring (black on white). Then I switched to Vim and used a dark background. Switching between dark and light background has never been a problem for me.

Could you elaborate more on your situation? Did you always use a dark background? What are the conditions around where you code?

Light grey on black for me is still too hard to see. I prefer pure black and white. On the Windows Command Prompt, I set the default color to 0F instead of the default.

My concern is not so much with a dark/light scheme, but with color contrast.

Currently, I use Vim with a dark colorscheme ('desert') and I love it. My friend, Aaron, also uses a dark colorscheme.

However, my other friend, Brian C., has an affinity for light backgrounds. Whenever I show him code on any dark colorscheme, his first response is to make it white. Then again, that is his normal setup; that is what he always deals with.

I coded at first a few years ago with the normal Eclipse-type scheme, but then when I switched to Linux+Vim and later Linux+Emacs I've always used a black background with light gray text. I'm probably just not used to coding on light backgrounds, since I haven't done it in a long while - if I did it for a few hours, I'd probably adjust. I just haven't really had the need to do so.