I have been without syntax highlighting for two years now, and I don't miss it. Have tested using it again, but feelt it distracting. For me the main advantage

I have been without syntax highlighting for two years now, and I don't miss it. Have tested using it again, but feelt it distracting. For me the main advantage is that without the colours it is easier to see when a certain part of the code is 'ugly'. With syntax highlighting on, everything is a soup of colors anyway. Also, when highlighting makes comments light gray and almost invisible, it is easy to leave a commented-out mess of old code around. When comments are given the same emphasis as real code I care more about them, and make them tidy too. I don't find the extra information provided by colours useful. I'd rather spend five seconds going back to the declaration of the variable (in my editor, it is a simple right click to jump between usages of a string), which will also remind me of its type and the context it was introduced, since if I am unsure about its scope, chances are there are more aspects of the item which I am unsure of.