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Old 18th June 2008
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TerryP TerryP is offline
Arp Constable
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USofA
Posts: 1,547
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I suppose when it comes to text editing, decent editing keybindings/mappings (e.g. no need for a mouse) and syntax highlighting is probably about all I really ask for.


I think I agree with people in #vim, code should _not_ look like a Christmas tree !!!


I like syntax highlighting because I spend a lot of time in text editors, which is probably why I like nvi and vim. The first time I tried creating a color scheme for Vim that took over my syntax highlighting.. I found the colours to distracting and chucked it.

In Vim I use the 'astronaut' colo in a pseudo transparent terminal and find find it to have very good effects on syntax highlighting.


Some keywords are underlined and coloured, keywords and some types of things coloured, strings colored differently + diff colour for %stu \ff and coloured comments.

I loved astronaut so much for Perl and felt so at home with it for Python, that I created my own personal colour scheme based on it.


I like syntax highlighting when it _helps_ me. If you really know how your syntax highlighting works, you can use it to quickly scan bits of information and differentiate parts of code quickly.


One thing I do like is providing a highlight of some sort for {}. (), [], and when XML/SGML based stuff is around <tag></tag>.


I've found syntax highlighting very helpful for Perl, PHP, LaTeX, and XHTML in particular. Especially if I forget a freaking sigil or start a string with ' or " and end it with the opposite one by mistake

I can use the warning/error messages and the syntax highlighting to quickly locate the offending code. Now if only there was a way to make vim add missing ';'s on :w hehe.
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Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
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