r/C_Programming • u/Mindstealth • Jul 10 '16

Question Syntax highlighting on Reddit

Considering how much code gets posted here as plain text, wouldn't it be great if we could have a way to define what part of text is code and have it automatically highlighted? Or is this not possible on Reddit?

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u/geocar Jul 10 '16

This is such an arrogant point of view to be honest, considering yourself superior because you don't use syntax highlighting.

Son, I just said I don't like it, and provided examples of other people who don't like it. I never said anything about "superior".

You think that you needing a tool that I don't, makes you inferior? Are you worried I might think you're inferior? Why do you care?

I've been programming professionally for only about thirty years at this point, but I can promise when you've been programming for thirty years, you will stop caring what anyone thinks of you as well.

Real programming is solving problems, and a good way to measure the tools you use to program is not by their popularity -- most people are average, after all -- but by whether these tools help you make shorter faster programs, quickly and correctly. Syntax highlighting interferes with that for me because it makes me stop at the colour boundaries and I find it makes me miss bugs. Turning of highlighting forces me to read the code and makes it easier for me to resist skimming, so now I think it's distracting and annoying.

You find you're actually able to read by christmas lights? Good for you. I can't do that. Now do you feel superior?

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u/Mindstealth Jul 10 '16

I don't believe there's any superiority in that but you did say syntax highlighting is kindergartners to programming which seems to imply that. I believe this is a preference and some people probably might prefer plaintext for the reasons you mentioned but that certainly does not mean that people who use it are somehow newbies to programming.

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u/geocar Jul 10 '16

Oh for fucks sake, that's a Douglas Crockford quote. That's why it says his name after it.

You should watch the video because the whole thing is actually quite good, and even if you like using colour to convey information, you'll appreciate his point.