[LatencyKills]

I was an engineer on the Visual Studio team when we first introduced syntax highlighting and code completion. The rollout triggered quite a bit of internal controversy. A sizable group of developers strongly opposed these features—syntax coloring, parameter completion, signature validation—arguing that “real programmers write their code unaided.”

I can’t help but wonder how those same engineers are adapting to the current wave of AI-powered development tools like Claude Code and Cursor.

[cogman10]

I will say this, I don't see how these aids can hurt someone's ability to write code.

In that, I think there is a difference between those tools and AI. AI can write code fast, but can definitely also hurt your ability maintain a codebase if you aren't keeping it in check.

I don't think there's any level where synatax highlighting could make a codebase worse.

[wang_li]

When a coworker pastes a screenshot of their syntax highlighted code with a black background into chat it is functionally 50% blank as my 55 year old eyes are not good at low contrast. Regular blue, purples and reds are often unreadable against a black background.

Fortunately syntax highlighting isn’t part of the code, it’s just how it’s displayed. There comes a point where pasting images of code, to preserve syntax highlighting, into chats, email, and documentation it’s not only a waste of space, it becomes an ADA issue. Use whatever fonts and themes in your editor, but keep those to yourself.

[Miraltar]

I'm guessing they used the same argument that was made for calculators, printing... By lessening the burden on your brain you weaken it.

[adornKey]

When making a typo one guy I knew deleted the whole word with backspace and typed it new from the beginning. Anything else to correct the error he called cheating.

That was a long time ago - and he was still young. But not so long ago I asked some keyboard manufacturer (Ducky?!) to add more macro features for productivity - and I got the answer that it would be cheating to play back macros faster than normal writing speed - Recording macros on a keyboard and playing it back faster than recorded was impossible by design because they don't want to support cheaters.

Oh those coders... I wonder how much code on Github is invalid because of cheating...

[eythian]

I'm pretty sure Turbo Pascal/C/etc and perhaps vim had syntax highlighting (though perhaps not the other bits) before the first VS release, I'm surprised they hadn't encountered it already.

[LatencyKills]

It wasn't that it was "new" (you're correct, it wasn't). The complaint was that Microsoft engineers were going to use it "as a crutch".

Also, VS (codename Boston) was used as the de-facto internal development IDE for a few years before it we released it to the public. There were also arguments about shipping those types of features publicly.