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Books with syntax highlighting, or why I prefer reading code from screen than paper

9 points by nailer ↗ HN
I recently noted an odd phenomenon. Maybe it's just me, but I suspect it's not.

One case: I own the paper Book of DJango. But I keep noticing I prefer to read it from the screen of my laptop. I also read newspapers, but prefer to read those from paper.

The reason for wanting to read code from screen is because I've become so used to syntax highlighting, whether in vim/gedit/TextMate/eTextEditor or on websites. I've come to expect it from he internet, where I do most of my learning. Going back to textbooks, black code on a white background seems like a massive blur of text.

Thing is, I'd happily pay for The Book or DJango, or any other text, in full color with syntax highlighting.

Am I the only one?

14 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 57.6 ms ] thread
Oompa
I've been reading the Pragmatic Programmer and the copy I have is in black and white, and I've noticed the exact same thing.
yagibear
Real men read in hex.
eru
Syntax highlighted hex.
swombat
Nah, I have no problems with non-syntax-highlighted code. I'm sure some people do, but I'm quite comfortable reading black and white code.
Herring
Yeah i find it really hard to read non-highlighted code. Incidentally, give kate a try if you use gedit. You might like it more.
davidw
The real problem is not being able to grep books.
ivanstojic
That reminds me... I recently used my old, inherited book of my grandmother's cake recipes. I know there's a recipe for a cake I like in there, but for the life of me I cannot find it (the book is huge).

I cursed about seven times before giving up.

alparsla
Color in print is expensive
eru
But you can use different fonts at almost no cost.
eru
But you can use different fonts at almost no cost.
nailer
Sure. The question is, would people pay for it?

I would, and it seems like I'm not the only one.

travisjeffery
I like reading from the book most of the time.

One reason could be that I've paid for it and feel like I've made a commitment and learn it, so it gives me some more motivation.

I can doodle, and write down thoughts easier than doing it on the web or using one of the features in any pdf viewing app.

ninjackn
The lack of syntax highlighting in books don't bother me too much, it's the size of the book. I've gotten used to a wide screen monitor for code so it's nice when that long if statement is on one line.

For the purpose of learning from a book the bold and italics in print is often good enough for me. Have def in bold and comments in italics and i'm generally pleased. Then again it could just me a bias I have since i prefer to reading books than pdfs on a computer.