4 ms·

The idea of programming in green text on a black background with no syntax highlighting makes me shudder.

reaperducer 8y ago
I did it back in the olden days, on everything from Wyse and Wang terminals to a Commodore 64 and an IBM XT with MDA display. I haven’t done it that way in years, but this article makes me want to try it again. I wonder if all that highlighting is actually making me less focused. I guess I’ll find out later this week.
- XorNot 8y ago
  I can't see how you can get more productive by removing a channel of information from yourself though.
  - wutbrodo 8y ago
    Using this kind of rational-choice-based theory assumes complete control of the way your brain processes information and the channels it chooses to focus on, which simply isn't accurate. For a reductio ad absurdum, if you had a book in which each word was in bold purple iff its Scrabble score was divisible by 5, I don't think it would be controversial that removing that channel of information would make you more productive.
    - JetSpiegel 8y ago
      It would if it was a Scrabble dictionary.
      - wutbrodo 8y ago
        Very true, and completely irrelevant. We're talking about a counterexample to a universal claim, not a universal claim that runs counter to the original claim. The comment I responded to said (paraphrased) "I don't see how you could be more efficient by removing a channel of information", and this is what I disputed, providing a theoretical explanation and a simple example. The fact that examples in the contrary direction exist (as you point out) is not disputed by anyone. FWIW, as far as the specific upthread topic goes: despite generally preferring a pretty barebones development environment, I prefer syntax highlighting.
  - paulriddle 8y ago
    The idea is that if everything is highlighted then your brain adapts and stops paying as much attention to highlighted elements. Many colorschemes use too much colors. It is not uncommon to have one line be highlighted with red because of an asynchronous linter warning, and many other words with purple because they are keywords like 'class', 'def', 'do', 'end', and so on. And there are a bunch of other colors everywhere else. Some people ask themselves "Do I really want to highlight syntax elements? If there is a syntax mistake, my editor will immediately tell me anyway, and it will be much more prominent if I have a clean uniform sheet of code." I've been using minimalist colorscheme for more than a year now. To me it highlights only what matters: mistakes are red, code is dark and uniform, comments are faded, current line is highlighted, search matches have their own color. That's it for the most part. There are some subtleties that are also handled. Minimal highlighting is beautiful and clean. Too much color is ugly and messy. Just become clean! Remove your wallpaper, remove those tiny ugly icons from your toolbar, find minimal colorscheme, install tiling window manager, take a bath.
  - kgwxd 8y ago
    Exactly, thats why I always have all TVs on, youtube on my third monitor, and twitch on my phone. I get stuff doner than anyone I know.
zaro 8y ago
I think it's something similar to the Stockholm sindrome. It's literally hurting your eyes but you are so used to the pain you don't want to let it go :) Joke aside, I remember when Green was the only colour my monitor could produce. And it felt great only because the other option was not using a computer at all.
marssaxman 8y ago
Works just as well now as it did back when it was the only choice. I like the simplicity; it can be less distracting.

I did it back in the olden days, on everything from Wyse and Wang terminals to a Commodore 64 and an IBM XT with MDA display. I haven’t done it that way in years, but this article makes me want to try it again. I wonder if all that highlighting is actually making me less focused. I guess I’ll find out later this week.

XorNot 8y ago
I can't see how you can get more productive by removing a channel of information from yourself though.
- wutbrodo 8y ago
  Using this kind of rational-choice-based theory assumes complete control of the way your brain processes information and the channels it chooses to focus on, which simply isn't accurate. For a reductio ad absurdum, if you had a book in which each word was in bold purple iff its Scrabble score was divisible by 5, I don't think it would be controversial that removing that channel of information would make you more productive.
  - JetSpiegel 8y ago
    It would if it was a Scrabble dictionary.
    - wutbrodo 8y ago
      Very true, and completely irrelevant. We're talking about a counterexample to a universal claim, not a universal claim that runs counter to the original claim. The comment I responded to said (paraphrased) "I don't see how you could be more efficient by removing a channel of information", and this is what I disputed, providing a theoretical explanation and a simple example. The fact that examples in the contrary direction exist (as you point out) is not disputed by anyone. FWIW, as far as the specific upthread topic goes: despite generally preferring a pretty barebones development environment, I prefer syntax highlighting.
- paulriddle 8y ago
  The idea is that if everything is highlighted then your brain adapts and stops paying as much attention to highlighted elements. Many colorschemes use too much colors. It is not uncommon to have one line be highlighted with red because of an asynchronous linter warning, and many other words with purple because they are keywords like 'class', 'def', 'do', 'end', and so on. And there are a bunch of other colors everywhere else. Some people ask themselves "Do I really want to highlight syntax elements? If there is a syntax mistake, my editor will immediately tell me anyway, and it will be much more prominent if I have a clean uniform sheet of code." I've been using minimalist colorscheme for more than a year now. To me it highlights only what matters: mistakes are red, code is dark and uniform, comments are faded, current line is highlighted, search matches have their own color. That's it for the most part. There are some subtleties that are also handled. Minimal highlighting is beautiful and clean. Too much color is ugly and messy. Just become clean! Remove your wallpaper, remove those tiny ugly icons from your toolbar, find minimal colorscheme, install tiling window manager, take a bath.
- kgwxd 8y ago
  Exactly, thats why I always have all TVs on, youtube on my third monitor, and twitch on my phone. I get stuff doner than anyone I know.

zaro 8y ago

I think it's something similar to the Stockholm sindrome. It's literally hurting your eyes but you are so used to the pain you don't want to let it go :) Joke aside, I remember when Green was the only colour my monitor could produce. And it felt great only because the other option was not using a computer at all.

marssaxman 8y ago

Works just as well now as it did back when it was the only choice. I like the simplicity; it can be less distracting.