Bug 157628

Huh? Kate in KDE3.x shows the *same* symbol for tabs and trailing spaces.
In KDE4 there are two options in the Editing tab:
1. [x] Highlight tabulators
2. [x] Highlight trailing spaces
If only 2 is enabled, trailing tabs and trailing spaces are highlighted as a small dot. If 1 and 2 are enabled, tabs are marked up as a small » sign.
Isn't that exactly what you are looking for?

I recently found the problem. The issue is that for some reason the default tabulator/space color was set to a color close to white. This caused them not to appear. I had this issue on two different Debian systems, so I would suspect there is a bug somewhere either in the Debian builds or in KDE 4.x itself. The default color shouldn't be white.

Indeed. There are lots of insane default colors :)

SVN commit 776844 by dhaumann:

for tab and trailing-space highlighting choose a much darker color (not almost white)
BUG: 157628


 M  +1 -1      kateconfig.cpp  
 M  +1 -1      kateschema.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=776844

SVN commit 776845 by dhaumann:

backport: for tab and trailing-space highlighting choose a dark color
CCBUG: 157628


 M  +1 -1      kateconfig.cpp  
 M  +1 -1      kateschema.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=776845

Um... ShadowShade? Isn't that a bit overkill? What about re-using MidShade, or at least only DarkShade?

On second thought, I think the reason I used MidLight in the first place is because it works better with light-on-dark schemes (which might look equally bad now)... will investigate a patch.

it was almost invisible/white before. shadow is still (!) pretty light, but good enough readable, and you can see the difference to the text color.

ShadowShade is unacceptable for light-on-dark schemes. Probably this needs to change based on the background color.

I've got a patch I'm testing now...

SVN commit 780632 by mwoehlke:

Since no one has objected, let's try this new way of calculating default colors; it should work adequately for both dark and light color schemes (unlike either of the previous attempts that had problems with one or the other).

BUG: 157628


 M  +6 -3      kateconfig.cpp  
 M  +6 -3      kateschema.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=780632

SVN commit 780634 by mwoehlke:

Backport 780632 to 4.0: new way of calculating default colors that should work adequately for both dark and light color schemes (unlike either of the previous attempts that had problems with one or the other)

CCBUG: 157628


 M  +6 -3      kateconfig.cpp  
 M  +6 -3      kateschema.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=780634