Syntax highlighting makes quite a large difference for me with regards to identifying things without having to look for it for too long, but I do sometimes miss detail. When I used to use plain vim it worked fine but it was harder to visually parse quickly.
I program without syntax highlighting
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#62I myself prefer to eschew the affordances of IDEs and have even kicked my addiction to compilers/linkers.
Hand-crafted artisinal 1 and 0s is the best, most productive, way to code.
/S Obviously?
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#63Most 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…
> Most syntax highlighting adds too many color variations.
Different strokes, for different folks. I personally use Monokai where each token type has and ‘extreme’ colour (like full red, full green, full yellow, etc.) — I absolutely love it and, for me, makes code much easier to parse
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#64I’ve tried in the past to explain/promote/defend my syntax-coloring-free serenity, but I wish I’d thought of this: > Syntax is not the most challenging part of programming. It seems like unless you’re learning the language it’s mainly a distraction.
Idk - I really think this is a different brain thing.
I have synesthesia and so get syntax highlighting for free.
I like my highlighting to give me "synesthesia bootstrap speedup"; on the contrary it annoys me when it clashes.
It's an extreme case, but I presume as with most things there's a spectrum
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#65I 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…
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Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#66Earlier 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'm pretty sure Turbo Pascal/C/etc and perhaps vim had syntax highlighting (though perhaps not the other bits) before the first VS release, I'm surprised they hadn't encountered it already.
It wasn't that it was "new" (you're correct, it wasn't). The complaint was that Microsoft engineers were going to use it "as a crutch".
Also, VS (codename Boston) was used as the de-facto internal development IDE for a few years before it we released it to the public. There were also arguments about shipping those types of features publicly.
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#67I 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…
I think we should have more semantic highlighting. Like giving every variable a unique color. Or color them by type!
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#68I’ve tried in the past to explain/promote/defend my syntax-coloring-free serenity, but I wish I’d thought of this: > Syntax is not the most challenging part of programming. It seems like unless you’re learning the language it’s mainly a distraction.
Idk - I really think this is a different brain thing. I have synesthesia and so get syntax highlighting for free. I like my highlighting to give me "synesthesia bootstrap speedup"; on the contrary it annoys me when it clashes. It's an extreme case, but I presume as with most things there's a spectrum
If people like Rob Pike and Linus Torvalds are on the opposite end of that spectrum, you might be interested in why that is.
I strongly suspect the older and more experienced a developer is, the more likely they are to code without syntax coloring, including large numbers who previously didn’t.
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#69As 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 had not thought about this perspective (I wrote this essay many eons ago). But now I have a good colleague who is dyslexic, and he said the same thing. He says, for him, the colours carry more meaning than the characters often.
It is quite powerful that when you see a common keyword in the wrong color you can immediately deduce a syntax error.
Re: I program without syntax highlighting
#70I 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…
No compliler automatically supports all languages so I do all my programming with a magnetized needle and a steady hand.
I do all my programming by only making self sustaining full scale universe simulations that contain a copy of myself, so that by the strong anthropic principle the code has already been written.