Too much code - slicing

[Seebs]

On 2010-09-19, AK <andrei.avk at gmail.com> wrote:
> Funny that you should say that, because I thought quite a few times that
> it would be really awesome if some texts in English had syntax
> highlighting. Obviously, not Brothers Karamazov, but something like a
> tutorial, or a manual, or an online article. If key words were
> highlighted, I'd be able to quickly glance over parts that are not
> useful to me at the time, and find the interesting bits.

That wouldn't be *syntax* highlighting, that'd be *semantic* highlighting.

Which people often do -- notice that I did it twice in that paragraph.  But
that's the point -- you need to know what it *means* to make sensible
decisions about what to highlight.  Syntax highlighting is precisely the
opposite, highlighting things for reasons that have nothing to do with
their semantic content.  It distracts from the actual meaning of the
code.

In short, syntax highlighting would be like writing:

	FUNNY *that* _you_ *should* /say/ *that*.

> It'd be like speed reading, except real!

I don't understand this.  So far as I know, the phrase "speed reading"
refers to various methods of reading much faster than most people read,
and is real but not exceptionally interesting.

-s
-- 
Copyright 2010, all wrongs reversed.  Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam at seebs.net
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