[sf-perl] IDEs and/or Editors

[Joe Brenner]

David Alban <extasia at extasia.org> wrote:

> [with all due respect to those who like syntax highlighting]
> 
> I once stopped using speed dialing because it made me forget the phone
> numbers eventually.  I wonder if using syntax highlighting can make
> you less effective eventually if you have to use an editor that
> doesn't have it...

I know the sort of problem you're talking about, but syntax highlighting 
isn't likely to do it to you.

On the other hand, I'm a fan of using templates for things of late, 
and they genuinely can make it harder to remember the details of things
I've got in my templates... I personally just don't care very much.
I've always got the templates, and I know how to look the stuff up 
if need be. (But I can imagine it could be embarrassing on a job 
interview: "I thought you said you know how to use this").

> I personally don't like syntax highlighting (but not for the reason
> above).  I find the flashing changing colors annoying and distracting.

I can sympathize, but it probably just means you need to use *different* 
syntax highlighting.  For example, I like cperl-mode in emacs well 
enough, but there's a *really* stupid feature in it where by default 
it likes to highlight spaces at the end of a line with an underscore:
it's too irritating to be believed, (and figuring out how to make it go 
away isn't as easy as it should be, either)...