[naikrovek]

Yeah everyone "knows" this, but where's the proof? I've never seen any proof that syntax highlighting helps someone who knows their code well. Things that are supposed to be common knowledge like this often turn out to be false when someone eventually decides to challenge their assumptions.

I programmed for a full decade with Notepad alone. I don't think colored keywords are important, though I use syntax highlighting today.

[tgv]

There are probably tasks you can perform quicker when you're accustomed to syntax coloring, since the brain tends to capitalize on association with easily detected features. Finding the start of a function could be such as task, but the gain would be low (a few 100s of milliseconds, I'd guess).

At the same time, it might slow down other tasks, which can be harder to identify. I was just changing some html template, and I made a dumb "extra quote"" error because of highlighting. It probably took me more than a minute, which would offset a great number of small speedups.

I guess the conclusive proof won't be easy to find.

[Tarq0n]

Why would I know whatever code I'm reading well? Most of the time I'm reading code it's unfamiliar to me, like for instance library code, picking up a project after a long break, or in this case on a blog.