Does syntax highlighting help programming novices?

Christoph Hannebauer, Marc Hesenius, Volker Gruhn

Abstract

Program comprehension is an important skill for programmers - extending and debugging existing source code is part of the daily routine. Syntax highlighting is one of the most common tools used to support developers in understanding algorithms. However, most research on code highlighting is more than 20 years old, when programmers used a completely different tool chain. Newer results on the effect of syntax highlighting as used in modern Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are inconclusive.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{Hannebauer-al:ICSE18,
  author    = {Christoph Hannebauer and
               Marc Hesenius and
               Volker Gruhn},
  title     = {Does syntax highlighting help programming novices?},
  booktitle = {ICSE},
  pages     = {704},
  publisher = {{ACM}},
  year      = {2018},
}

Does syntax highlighting help programming novices?

Abstract

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