2014-06-29 18:43 GMT+04:00 Aapo Vienamo <aapo.vien...@iki.fi>: >> 2. Fantastic syntax highlighting > This may be considered harmfull in general. [0] > [0] http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/syntaxhighlighting/ Hello, This snippet of thought makes a case that reading code is like reading a literature, when in fact, surprise, it is not. You can literally replace his arguments against syntax highlighting with arguments against alignment in tabular data, because reading a literature with alignment will prove to be difficult. Or that you don't need indentation because it makes you focus on parsing tree rather than semantics, if we're taking it closer to the programming world.
The ridiculousness of a comparison would be more apparent if, instead of coloring verbs in text (which I personally do not consider keywords, verbs are operators; the program text is not very saturated with keywords, and those serve more as headings), it indeed did compare a snippet with and without highlighting. Quote: > Syntax errors will be found by the compiler anyway; the developers shouldn't > waste time looking for them. The point of syntax highlighting is that you don't have to waste time looking for them, as they become apparent; indeed, you also don't need to spend time compiling it and reading what the compiler spew forthh at you in response. This statement would be like saying that spellcheckers are useless because correctors are there to fix typos in a draft. Then, having falsibly dismissed syntax highlighting for experienced programmers, the author goes on to suggest that it is a handicap to... uh, what exactly? Learning all 20 keywords in a language? Quote: > They will have to, eventually, and then they will have to un-learn the > colours. Obviously, syntax highlighting isn't crucial for understanding code, indeed, it often doesn't even distinguish between keywords. So the analogy falls flat: you don't have to unlearn the colors to learn the names, you know the names already. This is especially strange, because author apparently understands that typos are important to detect. The desire of some people even in spheres that are supposedly technologically advanced to go all "I'm better than you because I don't NEED your newfangled this and that" is frightening. -- Peace, Alexander Sedov.
