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Syntax Off (2012)

kyleisom.net

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Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#21

Post by bcj »

recuter wrote: post #17

I actually sometimes associate words with sound and color - it makes me wonder why we are still limiting ourselves only visual feedback. I vaguely remember somebody posting a lisp-y emacs-y setup of a synth coding environment of sorts that looked like heaven to me. (You'd quickly iterate on code with transforms that would shift the sound playing at all times and the colors would POP at you) It also makes me wonder ho…

Interesting in theory, though it could get annoying fast (The first thing I do is always to turn off the bell).

Changing tone based on depth could be pretty interesting, as could tones representing things like unused variables.

Based on your preferences, you could also do things like have the noise grow unpleasant if you do something you shouldn't (e.g., reuse a variable name, write an impure function, etc.).

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#23

Post by ketralnis »

> Syntax highlighting had, for me, been somewhat of a crutch. I was relying on it to immediately highlight code errors

One man's crutch is another man's perfectly reasonable tool. Is a carpenter's level a crutch?

> When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours

I have trouble discerning colours and I still use syntax highlighting. I don't think that there are people that are programmers but unable to read code unless all of the floats are purple. The highlighting mostly just tells me "this parsed correctly" and helps my eye track where e.g. string literals begin and end. I don't really see a reason to give either of those things up. If it's distracting, you could easily turn down the theme to just bold one or two keywords and string literals, which solves both of those two problems at least. Maybe go crazy and reverse the background on obvious syntax errors like unexpected symbols.

I rarely want to focus on the code itself and more just want to focus on the problem. Immediately highlighting code errors seems like a perfectly nice thing to do to that end. If I could just write a bunch of code quickly, riddled with syntax errors, and click some magic "okay editor, fix away!" button I'd be fine with that too.

To each their own I suppose.

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#24

Post by dingaling »

dlsym wrote: post #2

"How I stopped [perfectly fine activity]... And why you should, too."

I've no problem with syntax highlighting as a concept, but invariably it's only designed for white or black terminal. If you need to use something else, like light gray, then certain colours of elements disappear due to low contrast.

Much like the colour output of ls; beautiful on black, largely invisible on anything else.

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#25

Post by Shish2k »

"When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours"

I do! In long conversations in novels I occasionally lose track of who is currently talking; normally it's really obvious as the next page of text doesn't make any sense until I backtrack to find where the speech got switched, though one time I finished a whole book where my protagonist had the wrong gender because I didn't realise that the prologue and the main text were written from different people's first-person perspectives...

It also reminds me of some anime fansubs, where series with lots of characters would have each character's subs written in their hair colour, which is really helpful for someone who has trouble disinguishing similar foreign voices from each other :P

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#26

Post by [deleted] »

bcj wrote: post #10

"The best way I can describe it is to compare it to reading a book. When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours. What I want to do is to read the book, to take in the information." I found this interesting, as my reaction has been almost the complete opposite. I've never felt that syntax highlighting played a part in understanding code at a high level. Syntax highlighting is ther…

[deleted]

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#28

Post by zeroDivisible »

ketralnis wrote: post #23

> Syntax highlighting had, for me, been somewhat of a crutch. I was relying on it to immediately highlight code errors One man's crutch is another man's perfectly reasonable tool. Is a carpenter's level a crutch? > When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours I have trouble discerning colours and I still use syntax highlighting. I don't think that there are people that are program…

I don't know why, but when I was reading this, I had in my mind that submission from earlier today, what 4chan thinks about HN, especially this bit:

"How I stopped [perfectly fine activity]... And why you should, too."

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#29

Post by kayoone »

highlighting creates a picture of your code that the human brain can process much quicker, thats why traffic lights or player jerseys have color.

Re: Syntax Off (2012)

#30

Post by thedz »

> When I read a book, I don't want parts of speech highlighted in different colours

Books don't have syntax highlighting, but having never read a book that does, I can't say one way or the other that it is a terrible idea.

And actually, as I think about it more, books would be a nicer reading experience if conversations were highlighted, and if key person/place names where in a different color.

(Just like text in RPGs sometimes).

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