Colorization Required

Black and white works fine when I’m reading newspapers. But when I’m reading computer languages of any kind – from Perl to SQL, from C# to Regular Expressions, from HTML to XML – I can’t bear to read them in black and white any more.

Consider this Infocard XML as you’d see it in a basic Notepad style text editor, perhaps with a little line numbering:

It’s just a slew of angle bracket noise that makes my brain hurt. But if view the same file in an editor that can colorize the XML...

... all of a sudden we can clearly see what’s going on.

Plain old Notepad is perfectly adequate for reading text files. But if you’re reading code or markup of any kind, Notepad doesn’t work very well. We need colorization to truly understand what we’re looking at.

Why is that? Are we just spoiled?

Jeff Atwood

Written by Jeff Atwood

Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Let's be kind to each other. Find me https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror

⏲️ Busy signing you up.

❗ Something's gone wrong. Please try again.

✅ Success! Check your inbox (and your spam folder, just in case).

Recent Posts

map of the United States via rgmii.org showing all 3,143 counties by rural (gold) / metro (grey) and population

Launching The Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

It's been a year since I invited Americans to join us in a pledge to Share the American Dream: 1. Support organizations you feel are effectively helping those most in need across America right now. 2. Within the next five years, also contribute public dedications of time or

By Jeff Atwood ·
Comments
Let's Talk About The American Dream

Let's Talk About The American Dream

A few months ago I wrote about what it means to stay gold — to hold on to the best parts of ourselves, our communities, and the American Dream itself. But staying gold isn’t passive. It takes work. It takes action. It takes hard conversations that ask us to confront

By Jeff Atwood ·
Comments
Stay Gold, America

Stay Gold, America

We are at an unprecedented point in American history, and I'm concerned we may lose sight of the American Dream.

By Jeff Atwood ·
Comments
I’m feeling unlucky... 🎲   See All Posts