4 ms·

> It's easy to spot all the verbs, but why on Earth would you want to do that? The big difference between genuine reading and coding is the variability of scan

> It's easy to spot all the verbs, but why on Earth would you want to do that? The big difference between genuine reading and coding is the variability of scanning / focus. When you read, you usually want to take it all in -- it wouldn't make sense to jump around because it's a single, linear journey. Code does not observe this rule, so the more experience you get as a coder, the better scanner you become. You quickly view a class and think "ah yes yes.. it's _roughly_ doing this.. that" -- you sure as heck don't read the whole thing carefully word by word! The best coders are amazing scanners -- capable of pointing out a missing parenthesis in a sea of parenthesis. This argument against syntax highlighting is like taking the batteries outta our flashlight. Sure, we'd be more careful but our productivity would surely suffer.

oconnore 10y ago
I've been working without highlighting for ~6 months, and I've gotten faster at scanning, not slower. Feel free to keep doing what you're doing, but making assumptions about workflows that you're unwilling to try is not helpful or convincing.
- joslin01 10y ago
  I want you to know this comment is every bit as subjective and "not helpful / convincing" as you think mine is except mine had deductive reasoning -- yours is just anecdotal. I only been coding for 10 years, so maybe some veterans who been coding since the 70s can share their experience and we can weigh it against yours. I also question that you indeed are a faster scanner. Here's a specific example I wonder if your scanning would win out on -- Xcode turns internal Cocoa classes blue whereas your own classes are green. You quickly know what you coded and what you didn't. Not helpful? Should already know? I wonder if you inherited someone else's code base if you would enjoy the green immediate feedback rather than the inference you would otherwise have to take.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- khedoros 10y ago
  I've been working for ~8 years in a mix of environments, some with syntax highlighting and some without. When working without highlighting, I rely on the shape of the code's text and the search function of my editor to navigate as I jump around code. With syntax highlighting, I have those tools, and extra navigational cues provided by little islands of color. I haven't noticed a difference in my scanning speed or code comprehension between the two. It may be there, but I'm not conscious of it. Consciously, I've got a slight preference for the colorization. It makes the code feel "friendlier", and I'm happier to be looking at it. The un-highlighted environments tend to be older Unix machines with other annoyances in the operating experience, so I'm sure that plays a lot into my perception.
jhbadger 10y ago
Some human languages actually work this way though. Nouns are always capitalized in German (not just proper nouns as in English). This is sort of a "syntax highlighting" in a way. Actually tying it to programming languages, the reason why some older languages made keywords mandatory upper case was to make them easy to spot in a listing before editor syntax highlighting was a thing.

oconnore 10y ago

I've been working without highlighting for ~6 months, and I've gotten faster at scanning, not slower. Feel free to keep doing what you're doing, but making assumptions about workflows that you're unwilling to try is not helpful or convincing.

joslin01 10y ago
I want you to know this comment is every bit as subjective and "not helpful / convincing" as you think mine is except mine had deductive reasoning -- yours is just anecdotal. I only been coding for 10 years, so maybe some veterans who been coding since the 70s can share their experience and we can weigh it against yours. I also question that you indeed are a faster scanner. Here's a specific example I wonder if your scanning would win out on -- Xcode turns internal Cocoa classes blue whereas your own classes are green. You quickly know what you coded and what you didn't. Not helpful? Should already know? I wonder if you inherited someone else's code base if you would enjoy the green immediate feedback rather than the inference you would otherwise have to take.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
khedoros 10y ago
I've been working for ~8 years in a mix of environments, some with syntax highlighting and some without. When working without highlighting, I rely on the shape of the code's text and the search function of my editor to navigate as I jump around code. With syntax highlighting, I have those tools, and extra navigational cues provided by little islands of color. I haven't noticed a difference in my scanning speed or code comprehension between the two. It may be there, but I'm not conscious of it. Consciously, I've got a slight preference for the colorization. It makes the code feel "friendlier", and I'm happier to be looking at it. The un-highlighted environments tend to be older Unix machines with other annoyances in the operating experience, so I'm sure that plays a lot into my perception.

jhbadger 10y ago

Some human languages actually work this way though. Nouns are always capitalized in German (not just proper nouns as in English). This is sort of a "syntax highlighting" in a way. Actually tying it to programming languages, the reason why some older languages made keywords mandatory upper case was to make them easy to spot in a listing before editor syntax highlighting was a thing.