I think I was implicitly asking a question that is close to my own research, and a question I should think about some more before kicking it out to anyone else. It would seem that syntax highlighting can be a factor in novice programming behavior, affecting when and how often they compile, when different types of errors are caught, etc. Unfortunately, we never really dug up many studies on the role of highlighting and typography on programmer efficiency, behavior, etc.
Alan captured it in a post on the 2nd of December http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00608.html I didn't mean to start a thread on the fact that syntax highlighting can be changed in some editors (if I could change it, what would I change it to, and why?), or that it might be used differently by different types of programmer (because I don't know how they use color now, and don't want to go changing something when I don't know where I've started), but instead I was hoping to get some thoughts on what we might actually explore regarding the role of syntax highlighting and the use of color in a systematic way. In short, the same thing Alan asked on Dec 3rd. http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00628.html (It must be "cite Alan Blackwell" day here in my office, or something...) Which further means I didn't need to rehash it... except for the fact that I had just witnessed an error based on the "impoverished visual landscape" of a text editor in a pedagogic piece of software. So, to answer your question Alan ("how would we go about fixing the situation?"), I'll think about it. Perhaps there's a starting point in here somewhere. M On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, Jason Trenouth wrote: | >>>>> On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 15:20:02 +0000, Derek M Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: | | Derek> I suspect students have a different use for highlighting | Derek> than expert users. Students are learning and therefore | Derek> want help in breaking up the text into meaningful chunks | Derek> (opinions will vary as to how this is best done). Experts | Derek> know what the chunks are, they are after a means of | Derek> reducing the cognitive effort needed to locate them in a | Derek> visual display. | | BTW A common use of code coloring and advanced auto-indentation is | that they can tell the programmer whether he/she has just made a basic | syntax error. If the indenter puts you in a place you weren't | expecting, or if the function identifier suddenly turn orange (say), | chances are the code around that point has some flaw. | | __Jason | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss | Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce | PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ | ________________________________________________________________________ Matt Jadud http://www.cs-ed.org/blogs/mjadud/ Canterbury Weather: High 48 F / 9 C, Low 44 F / 7 C, Low-level cloud ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
