Does Syntax Highlighting Help?
Given the fact that famous programmers like Ken Thompson, Linus Torvalds, Rob Pike, etc. don’t use syntax highlighting, I was wondering if syntax highlighting helps in writing better code, understanding faster the structure of the code or it is just a distraction and is better to read and write code without syntax highlighting?
To me it makes things easier to read, easier to spot mistakes. But I'm not full time developer. I'm just reading code.
i personally know only one developer (drh of SQLite fame) who does not like/use syntax highlighting. For most of us, it helps us quickly separate the noise from the code. Some brains don't need that, though, or they find it distracting. Like many around here, my intro to coding was back before syntax highlighting was a real thing, but i'd be loathe to go back to monochrome coding on a day-to-day basis.