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As a dyslexic person, syntax highlighting is amazing. I don’t care that the highlights are 100% correct or even useful for understanding what the code does. Wh
by vonwoodson 4y ago
As a dyslexic person, syntax highlighting is amazing. I don’t care that the highlights are 100% correct or even useful for understanding what the code does.
What I care about is that it breaks up the characters with something other than more characters. It helps keep my eyes looking at the “important” places in the code, or close to it. The shape of the code is important and highlighted code just “looks” a bit more correct.
Keep in mind, I’m no novice. So, my opinion is absolutely unrelated to the article… so it is on HN.
- wodenokoto 4y agoI’m not a novice and I don’t know what the colors mean either. I’m not dyslexic at all, but I feel the same as you. Code doesn’t look right, and the changes in color helps with readability. It’s also a crude spell checker. “Hmm, the word didn’t change color so it’s probably not `elseif` … let me try `elif`. Yep, that changed color!” Kind of thing. The other two major pain points where color coding really makes it obvious what’s going on, is when a string is left unclosed and everything turns into “the wrong” color and matching of parentheses.
- euroderf 4y agoAgreed - it's hard to put your finger on it, but _something_ makes the code much easier to parse mentally at a glance.