Highlighting program variables instead of keywords?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:31:49 -0600, Skip Montanaro wrote:

> My son sent me a link to an essay about highlighting program data
> instead of keywords:
> 
> https://medium.com/p/3a6db2743a1e/
> 
> I think this might have value, especially if to could bounce back and
> forth between both schemes.

Hmmm, I'm not convinced, but then I wasn't convinced by syntax 
highlighting either until I had used it for a while. (I still think it's 
a nice-to-have rather than a must-have.)

Seems to me that beyond a dozen or so variables, the colours won't be 
distinctive enough to get much benefit. Especially if similar names get 
similar colours, e.g. the name "handle_process" and the typo 
"handle_prosess" will be barely distinguishable. In a well-designed 
program, most variables will appear in a fairly limited number of places, 
possibly in only a single function or method, so in even a fairly small 
project you might have a few dozen distinct variables, each of which 
might appear only three or five times.



> Is anyone aware of tools like this for
> Python? Bonus points for pointers to an Emacs implementation.

Sorry, can't help you.


-- 
Steven