[stefco_]

> Syntax coloring isn't useless, it is childish, like training wheels or school paste

Not as childish as writing a blog post bragging about how you don't need syntax highlighting to code.

In all seriousness, though: yes, after a while, you don't usually need it. But it's an immediate visual confirmation that I used the wrong type of quote for a string literal, or that I forgot my `def` statement before a python function. Unless you literally never make these errors (or the myriad other little errors that can be caught this way), syntax-aware editor tools like syntax highlighting or auto-indent will save you time by alerting you of your error promptly and letting you fix it without getting distracted. Nothing beats having the whole page suddenly look the wrong color to get your attention.

I actually can't think of a better way to avoid the class of errors that highlighting instantly exposes.

[edit] I do agree with Crockford that extra types of highlighting/formatting for readability can be great, including context-based coloring; emacs's rainbow parens does something similar based on enclosing parentheses, though the interior of the parentheses is still highlighted in the standard way.