51–60 of 70 posts
As usual, I read the code sample before reading the article: for (i=0;i There's no way it's mentally just as easy for me to find that error without syntax highlighting. It may be just slightly more difficult, but then it's death by a thousand paper cuts if I'm reading code for 6-12 hours a day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was an engineer on the Visual Studio team when we first introduced syntax highlighting and code completion. The rollout triggered quite a bit of internal controversy. A sizable group of developers strongly opposed these features—syntax coloring, parameter completion, signature validation—arguing that “real programmers write their code unaided.” I can’t help but wonder how those same engineers are adapting to the cu…
I will say this, I don't see how these aids can hurt someone's ability to write code. In that, I think there is a difference between those tools and AI. AI can write code fast, but can definitely also hurt your ability maintain a codebase if you aren't keeping it in check. I don't think there's any level where synatax highlighting could make a codebase worse.
Fortunately syntax highlighting isn’t part of the code, it’s just how it’s displayed. There comes a point where pasting images of code, to preserve syntax highlighting, into chats, email, and documentation it’s not only a waste of space, it becomes an ADA issue. Use whatever fonts and themes in your editor, but keep those to yourself.
As a dyslexic programmer, I often think about how I would never be able to do the job I do without syntax highlighting. I don’t really know why it works so well for me, but I think it helps me skim and pattern match syntax much more easily without spending too much time reading every single word, which is exhausting for me. Types and autocompletion in an IDE also help me massively reduce issues with spelling and ulti…
Hopefully when I’m done, you can take a peek to see if can help with your dyslexia
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was an engineer on the Visual Studio team when we first introduced syntax highlighting and code completion. The rollout triggered quite a bit of internal controversy. A sizable group of developers strongly opposed these features—syntax coloring, parameter completion, signature validation—arguing that “real programmers write their code unaided.” I can’t help but wonder how those same engineers are adapting to the cu…
I will say this, I don't see how these aids can hurt someone's ability to write code. In that, I think there is a difference between those tools and AI. AI can write code fast, but can definitely also hurt your ability maintain a codebase if you aren't keeping it in check. I don't think there's any level where synatax highlighting could make a codebase worse.
Most syntax highlighting adds too many color variations. In light modes, I find that variations gray and bolding certain symbols, variable names, function names in definitions and method calls to be enough. Just enough hint so the brain can skim for the matching information. My editor highlights the opening and closing brackets of my current block,but indent level indicators are usually enough for me to visually vali…
And then there's Rainbow Brackets...
> Supporting all languages equally future-proves the editor, because who knows which language we will use in ten years? I remember which editors I used in 1990: emacs for most of my code and vi (vim now) for light editing mostly on remote machines. They are the same editors I'm using today. I went through some IDEs (Eclipse, NetBeans) because Java would have been nearly impossible otherwise but I never left those two…
I think language matters quite a bit when it comes to how useful this is. For simpler syntaxes like C or Java, I think the highlighting adds little. But as a language allows for more complex things like monkey patching or helper methods and the like, a little bit of color is really helpful. Knowing immediately that a method is built into the SDK or that it's some monkey patch that's been added gives me better underst…
I was an engineer on the Visual Studio team when we first introduced syntax highlighting and code completion. The rollout triggered quite a bit of internal controversy. A sizable group of developers strongly opposed these features—syntax coloring, parameter completion, signature validation—arguing that “real programmers write their code unaided.” I can’t help but wonder how those same engineers are adapting to the cu…
As a dyslexic programmer, I often think about how I would never be able to do the job I do without syntax highlighting. I don’t really know why it works so well for me, but I think it helps me skim and pattern match syntax much more easily without spending too much time reading every single word, which is exhausting for me. Types and autocompletion in an IDE also help me massively reduce issues with spelling and ulti…
I program with syntax highlighting. I'm not convinced by the arguments of the article: - actively clicking on matching parentheses has the benefit of selecting that part - being more sensitive to the "beauty" of the code I think syntax highlighting doesn't get in the way of these two points. The only valid point: - No syntax highlighting automatically supports all languages True I guess. In the sense that no shoes su…