3 ms·
> the lack of syntax highlighting is pure elitism in my book That might be true. When you get past the snark, there is a strong argument against syntax highli
by thisrod 6y ago
> the lack of syntax highlighting is pure elitism in my book
That might be true.
When you get past the snark, there is a strong argument against syntax highlighting in Plan 9. If your desk is too messy to find anything, tidy it up; if your code is too messy to read, ditto. Syntax highlighting, from this perspective, is like bringing in a mechanical excavator when the answer is to stop digging. If you look at the Plan 9 code, they practiced what they preached.
But that perspective is an elite one, that of research programmers at Bell Labs, where the code is the product.
- __m 6y agoI would argue that highlighting the syntax is tidying up. It doesn’t stop you from keeping the code clean. Shooting yourself in the foot in order to not walk that much isn’t a compelling argument.