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 ultimately free up my brain to think about the logic rather than stressing out about every single thing I type.

Really cool that some people don’t need it, but for me, I am grateful to those who have spent the time on great themes. Solarized Dark is a favourite of mine.

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 support all feet.

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 validate.

Dark modes make contrast more difficult to discern though.

    for (i=0;i<3;++i) {
      /* Do initialisation here!
      niftyConfig = 1;
      funkyValue = 2;
    }

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.

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 editors for everything else.

They did not have syntax coloring in the 90s, they do now. It's not life changing but proper syntax coloring can make me spot an undefined variable or an unterminated string. I'm working only with interpreted and dynamic typed languages now so that's almost all it can be done without a compiler that runs in the background and checks the code for errors.

I don't use anymore any of the languages I programmed with 35 years ago.

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 understanding on what the code is doing.

That said, "go to definition" and "autocomplete" are the most important tools to me when it comes to coding.

[1] https://groups.google.com/g/golang-nuts/c/hJHCAaiL0so/m/kG3B...

> Syntax is not the most challenging part of programming.

It seems like unless you’re learning the language it’s mainly a distraction.

However, at work I am working on a much larger code base, and the extra help given by syntax highlighting (for example, having a quick visual feedback on whether a method exists or not) is valuable to me.

I think this also depends on the language used: at home I mostly program in C, but if I were doing more e.g. C++, I would probably enjoy some syntax highlighting.

Language models made syntax highlighting extremely cheap to make.

>If the code is neatly organised, the «grey mash» quickly crystalises into a beautiful little universe of logically connected parts; each standing by it self, on its own line or in its own scope, but referencing each other in clear and beautiful ways

Delusions packaged as deep insights.

I mean, the fact that many people seek out and use highlighted code underlines that many people don't experience what you experience.

I remember back in the day programming PHP in notepad, unhighlighted. Finding Sublime Text 2 with highlighting was a revelation.

modern editor features are very loud, and you don't notice it until you turn it off

that being said, this is not a good strategy for work editors

I'll represent the insufferable Emacs/Vim pricks by saying: Once I read you're using a mouse during development, my willingness to entertain your contrarian dx ideas dropped to near 0.

Hand-crafted artisinal 1 and 0s is the best, most productive, way to code.

/S Obviously?

… coding without syntax highlighting deprives you of signal!

Also, the comments in here are really strangely negative. Let people have their preferences, weirdos.

Also also: so much of syntax highlighting and such is designed by people without color blindness. So a lot of syntax highlighting just doesn't work for me. It's wild to me that color blind people still have to be vocal about it.