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>Well, no. One of the basic rules of thumb in typography is that, when writing a piece of text, you should choose one typeface and stick to it. Likewise, a spla

>Well, no. One of the basic rules of thumb in typography is that, when writing a piece of text, you should choose one typeface and stick to it. Likewise, a splash of colour may grab the reader's attention, but it will inevitably decrease the legibility of the text. The natural flow of the text is broken, and it takes more brain effort to piece together the individual letters into words and semantics. Cognitively, the reading process becomes slightly less automatic and slightly more conscious; leaving less room in the conscious part of the mind for actually understanding the text. That might be true for text, but I don't read code at all the way I read prose. I highly doubt i've ever read more then four or five lines of code in a row without my eye jumping to other parts of the function, forward to the next part to understand why variables are being set up, or backwards to remember when such variable was defined, or jumping to the big picture to remember how this function or that fits into the overall program. Syntax highlighting is enormously helpful to my eye when reading in that manner.

bpchaps 10y ago
Yes, and that's your opinion. Not mine. Not his. It's an opinion piece, but you and just about everyone in this thread is writing as if their opinion is a fact that trumps his opinion. Stop that :(. Edit: Why the downvotes? Are different opinions really that bad?
- acbabis 10y ago
  Except the article is not an opinion piece. The author makes a factual claim that removing syntax highlighting makes the code ironically easier to read. That's something that could be measured and either confirmed or refuted in a lab.
  - bpchaps 10y ago
    For some of us, syntax highlighting DOES make code more difficult to read. We're all different. I learned most of what I know on a Solaris 9 machine on a CRT with a model m back in 2008 with zero syntax highlighting, in vi and without vim. Zero fluff. I've tried syntax highlighting, but every time I do, I end up going back and my code quality and readability improves. I imagine a similar effect would happen to others if their colors were changed to incredibly tacky colors.
- Nadya 10y ago
  >Do you rely on syntax highlighting when developing software? If so, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. In this post, I will argue that syntax highlighting, while aesthetically seductive, moves focus from content to form, and discourages those who look at the code from trying to understand it. The very first opening line is an argument against syntax highlighting. Arguments (at least, of this sort) should be based on facts or studies, or at least logical reasoning and it is not introduced as an opinion piece, but an argument. I only gave the article a glance and I take two issues with it. >Syntax highlighting applied to fiction. It's easy to spot all the verbs, but why on Earth would you want to do that? I wouldn't need to for English, however I can think of a situation where I'd like to see the difference between an int '5' and a string '5' at a glance. In fact - that sort of bug isn't all that uncommon in languages that aren't hard typed. >[misguided piano teachers, yellow keys]...but do they honestly believe that children are unable to learn note names? They will have to, eventually, and then they will have to un-learn the colours. This argues like a case against mnemonics as learning devices. Mnemonics are an entire memory trick designed to be "un-learned" by the learner. Planet names aren't difficult to learn but a sentence like "Mercury Viewed Earth’s Many Aspects Joyfully Sitting Under Neptune" sure makes the order from the sun easier to remember. Mnemonics are a pretty well-research thing and they work [0]. Most people who want to compete in memory contests rely on using them. My favorite example is the Major System [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system
  - bpchaps 10y ago
    He's making arguments against it, yes. But he's not saying it as a piece of fact. I can see why you think that, but it's still an opinion piece. For me, syntax highlighting is a crutch that I want to avoid. I find myself glancing at my code rather than actually reading my code when it's enabled. It's an incredibly refreshing feeling to turn it off and just go back into vi. My code becomes shorter, easier to read, faster and much easier to maintain.
    - acbabis 10y ago
      I can't argue with that, but shouldn't you want to eventually take off the training weights so you can go that much faster?
- chc 10y ago
  You're ordering everyone in the thread to stop saying the article is wrong. How can you not expect downvotes? Setting that aside, though, the author is not just expressing his opinion. This piece isn't saying, "Well, personally, I don't like syntax highlighting." The OP is arguing for a general truth, not just a personal preference of the author. The piece makes objective claims about the effects syntax highlighting has on its users. Why shouldn't people feel entitled to say the argument is flawed if they see flaws in the argument?
  - bpchaps 10y ago
    I don't really think a sentence as flippant as that one can be considered "ordering"... and it if does, then I order you to stand up for your opinion with words, rather than downvotes. Really, I just think the guy's just very opinionated and is expressing something that's very important to him. Principle of charity and all that.
- bpchaps 10y ago
  Mods - is this kind of downvoting really warranted for these series of comments? I don't really understand. Much more off-topic posts that've been removed from the main thread in the past. Why is this any different?
retbull 10y ago
Also a lot of the time you are ignoring things like int or float because it isn't helpful unless the algorithm specifically needs it. So you read the declarations and just ignore everything after that as the color gives you a clue not to read 'for' for the billionth time.
- masterzora 10y ago
  Absolutely. Syntax highlighting for me is much more about what not to read than it is about what to read. It can be skipping over 'for' for the billionth time but often it's also reading only a couple key tokens to get the gist of what the line does and only going back to read it in full if non-obvious details matter.

bpchaps 10y ago

Yes, and that's your opinion. Not mine. Not his. It's an opinion piece, but you and just about everyone in this thread is writing as if their opinion is a fact that trumps his opinion. Stop that :(. Edit: Why the downvotes? Are different opinions really that bad?

acbabis 10y ago
Except the article is not an opinion piece. The author makes a factual claim that removing syntax highlighting makes the code ironically easier to read. That's something that could be measured and either confirmed or refuted in a lab.
- bpchaps 10y ago
  For some of us, syntax highlighting DOES make code more difficult to read. We're all different. I learned most of what I know on a Solaris 9 machine on a CRT with a model m back in 2008 with zero syntax highlighting, in vi and without vim. Zero fluff. I've tried syntax highlighting, but every time I do, I end up going back and my code quality and readability improves. I imagine a similar effect would happen to others if their colors were changed to incredibly tacky colors.
Nadya 10y ago
>Do you rely on syntax highlighting when developing software? If so, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. In this post, I will argue that syntax highlighting, while aesthetically seductive, moves focus from content to form, and discourages those who look at the code from trying to understand it. The very first opening line is an argument against syntax highlighting. Arguments (at least, of this sort) should be based on facts or studies, or at least logical reasoning and it is not introduced as an opinion piece, but an argument. I only gave the article a glance and I take two issues with it. >Syntax highlighting applied to fiction. It's easy to spot all the verbs, but why on Earth would you want to do that? I wouldn't need to for English, however I can think of a situation where I'd like to see the difference between an int '5' and a string '5' at a glance. In fact - that sort of bug isn't all that uncommon in languages that aren't hard typed. >[misguided piano teachers, yellow keys]...but do they honestly believe that children are unable to learn note names? They will have to, eventually, and then they will have to un-learn the colours. This argues like a case against mnemonics as learning devices. Mnemonics are an entire memory trick designed to be "un-learned" by the learner. Planet names aren't difficult to learn but a sentence like "Mercury Viewed Earth’s Many Aspects Joyfully Sitting Under Neptune" sure makes the order from the sun easier to remember. Mnemonics are a pretty well-research thing and they work [0]. Most people who want to compete in memory contests rely on using them. My favorite example is the Major System [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system
- bpchaps 10y ago
  He's making arguments against it, yes. But he's not saying it as a piece of fact. I can see why you think that, but it's still an opinion piece. For me, syntax highlighting is a crutch that I want to avoid. I find myself glancing at my code rather than actually reading my code when it's enabled. It's an incredibly refreshing feeling to turn it off and just go back into vi. My code becomes shorter, easier to read, faster and much easier to maintain.
  - acbabis 10y ago
    I can't argue with that, but shouldn't you want to eventually take off the training weights so you can go that much faster?
chc 10y ago
You're ordering everyone in the thread to stop saying the article is wrong. How can you not expect downvotes? Setting that aside, though, the author is not just expressing his opinion. This piece isn't saying, "Well, personally, I don't like syntax highlighting." The OP is arguing for a general truth, not just a personal preference of the author. The piece makes objective claims about the effects syntax highlighting has on its users. Why shouldn't people feel entitled to say the argument is flawed if they see flaws in the argument?
- bpchaps 10y ago
  I don't really think a sentence as flippant as that one can be considered "ordering"... and it if does, then I order you to stand up for your opinion with words, rather than downvotes. Really, I just think the guy's just very opinionated and is expressing something that's very important to him. Principle of charity and all that.
bpchaps 10y ago
Mods - is this kind of downvoting really warranted for these series of comments? I don't really understand. Much more off-topic posts that've been removed from the main thread in the past. Why is this any different?

retbull 10y ago

Also a lot of the time you are ignoring things like int or float because it isn't helpful unless the algorithm specifically needs it. So you read the declarations and just ignore everything after that as the color gives you a clue not to read 'for' for the billionth time.

masterzora 10y ago
Absolutely. Syntax highlighting for me is much more about what not to read than it is about what to read. It can be skipping over 'for' for the billionth time but often it's also reading only a couple key tokens to get the gist of what the line does and only going back to read it in full if non-obvious details matter.