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I wouldn't expect it to help much, if you don't have the vocabulary and a feel for how the code should look, syntax highlighting only points out similar things,
by mtreis86 4y ago
I wouldn't expect it to help much, if you don't have the vocabulary and a feel for how the code should look, syntax highlighting only points out similar things, which you can't comprehend anyways. Imagine trying to read something in a foreign language you're just starting to study, and someone went and highlighted all the verbs in one color and nouns in another, how useful would that be?
- wrp 4y agoGood example. I sometimes teach programming to grad students who have no previous experience. When they first encounter syntax highlighting, they are impressed with how pretty it makes things look. However, it becomes apparent that it's more of a distraction than anything else, so I encourage them to leave highlighting turned off. Oh, except for matching bracket highlighting. That is genuinely helpful.
- drekipus 4y ago> and someone went and highlighted all the verbs in one color and nouns in another, how useful would that be? Uhh, as someone who likes learning languages, this is immensely helpful. One of my favourite Mandarin graded readers actually highlights personal pronouns in the text, (because names are just Chinese words) so we can read the story without getting caught up in "the car climbed the tree? Wtf? Oh no it's 'the guy named car' has climbed the tree" That being said I agree that this is a digression, I think syntax highlighting will only help newbies marginally. There's a lot more that goes with understanding code
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]