One size does not fit all. If you are more productive without syntax highlighting, by all means, disable it. When I first started to program, I found syntax hi

One size does not fit all. If you are more productive without syntax highlighting, by all means, disable it. When I first started to program, I found syntax highlighting annoying and distracting, but I changed my mind within a year or so. So I have tried both sides and made my choice. I also think that the usefulness of syntax highlighting depends a lot on what language you are using. For example, I found it very helpful when working with Perl, but nearly pointless when writing SQL. Like I said, one size does not fit all.