3 ms·

I first learned C on VMS. When I could use Turbo C on my own computer in the 1990s, syntax highlighting just came along for the ride. I learned vi from Watcom.

by geocar 10y ago

I first learned C on VMS. When I could use Turbo C on my own computer in the 1990s, syntax highlighting just came along for the ride. I learned vi from Watcom. I used vim. I wrote in perl, and PHP. I also learned Emacs. I wrote in Common Lisp. Syntax highlighting just stayed on. And then I saw someone do something I had never seen before, and I wasn't sure how to do, and I noticed they weren't using syntax highlighting. So I turned it off.

kazinator 10y ago
Why stop at imitating that amazing coder's choice not to use syntax coloring? Dress like them, and adopt their tastes in music, political views and sexual orientation too.
taneq 10y ago
Did you have any thoughts of your own about the before/after experience? Or did you simply imitate them on the basis of learning an unrelated trick?
- geocar 10y ago
  Yes. Maybe. I don't think I was thinking about it that way. I think it was more like "look at how readable this is[1]", and when I opened it on my own computer all the bright colours were suddenly very distracting so I turned it off. I would sometimes use ed to make changes to programs since I can see what I was working on before I needed to make a change, so I don't think it was doing anything for me, but at the same time I don't think I ever thought about syntax highlighting until I tried to work with dense code. I do try consciously to improve myself, but nobody knows how they program and how to get better. The only strategy that has worked reliably: If I see someone do something I cannot do I try their methods until it makes sense in my own mind. I've tried to write about this previously[2], but most programmers are hostile when seeing someone do something they can't do, rather than just trying it, they make up all sorts of reasons why they don't need to --"it's unreadable"[3] is extremely common, but questions abou[4] is a new one on me. As it stands: I don't understand syntax highlighting. I'm pretty sure that syntax highlighting doesn't do anything for me in the best case. Maybe. But is it bad? Is turning it off necessary to being a better programmer? I got better when I turned it off, but it really might be a coincidence. I don't know. [1]: http://kparc.com/b/a.c http://kparc.com/b/a.c but not exactly. [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476294 [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477064 [4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12887021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12887021
  - taneq 10y ago
    That seems pretty reasonable - if you can see that someone else can do something you can't, and you don't know how, then there's no harm seeing what they do differently to you and trying that just in case. Correlation doesn't imply causation but it does suggest the possibility. I know I prefer a much more muted colour scheme now than I used to. I still like my syntax highlighting but it's more hinting than glaring RGB confetti.

by geocar 10y ago

kazinator 10y ago

Why stop at imitating that amazing coder's choice not to use syntax coloring? Dress like them, and adopt their tastes in music, political views and sexual orientation too.

taneq 10y ago

Did you have any thoughts of your own about the before/after experience? Or did you simply imitate them on the basis of learning an unrelated trick?

geocar 10y ago
Yes. Maybe. I don't think I was thinking about it that way. I think it was more like "look at how readable this is[1]", and when I opened it on my own computer all the bright colours were suddenly very distracting so I turned it off. I would sometimes use ed to make changes to programs since I can see what I was working on before I needed to make a change, so I don't think it was doing anything for me, but at the same time I don't think I ever thought about syntax highlighting until I tried to work with dense code. I do try consciously to improve myself, but nobody knows how they program and how to get better. The only strategy that has worked reliably: If I see someone do something I cannot do I try their methods until it makes sense in my own mind. I've tried to write about this previously[2], but most programmers are hostile when seeing someone do something they can't do, rather than just trying it, they make up all sorts of reasons why they don't need to --"it's unreadable"[3] is extremely common, but questions abou[4] is a new one on me. As it stands: I don't understand syntax highlighting. I'm pretty sure that syntax highlighting doesn't do anything for me in the best case. Maybe. But is it bad? Is turning it off necessary to being a better programmer? I got better when I turned it off, but it really might be a coincidence. I don't know. [1]: http://kparc.com/b/a.c http://kparc.com/b/a.c but not exactly. [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8476294 [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477064 [4]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12887021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12887021
- taneq 10y ago
  That seems pretty reasonable - if you can see that someone else can do something you can't, and you don't know how, then there's no harm seeing what they do differently to you and trying that just in case. Correlation doesn't imply causation but it does suggest the possibility. I know I prefer a much more muted colour scheme now than I used to. I still like my syntax highlighting but it's more hinting than glaring RGB confetti.