Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Syntax highlighting
Raised as a usability problem by 20 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 14 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Colored code is very hard to readUnreviewed
20122026- Too few colours and no text styling, so distinct code elements don't stand apart2026-01-18
- Too many color variations make code harder to skim2026-01-08
- Too many colors on one line make it hard to organize information2020-07-21
Colours are distracting and hard to read due to uneven contrastUnreviewed
20122026- Colours distract the reader, so bugs and incorrect comments get overlooked2021-09-11
- Low-contrast highlighting colors are hard to tell apart and cause eye strain2019-11-29
- Colours are distracting and hard to read due to uneven contrast2013-12-27
Light gray comments are nearly invisible, so commented-out code gets ignoredUnreviewed
20122026- Commenter cannot read code shown with syntax highlighting and must disable it2021-09-11
- Comments are muted and colors clash, making code hard to scan and distinguish2019-05-27
- Light gray comments are nearly invisible, so leftover commented-out code gets ignored2016-03-13
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 20 complaints
- Too few colours and no text styling, so distinct code elements don't stand apart2026-01-18
- Too many color variations make code harder to skim2026-01-08
- Editors show everything as broken when switching in and out of TeXinfo syntax2024-11-28
- Colours distract the reader, so bugs and incorrect comments get overlooked2021-09-11
- Commenter cannot read code shown with syntax highlighting and must disable it2021-09-11
- Too many colors on one line make it hard to organize information2020-07-21
- Colored code is very hard to read2019-11-29
- Low-contrast highlighting colors are hard to tell apart and cause eye strain2019-11-29
- Highlighted code is noisy and hard to read closely2019-05-27
- Unclosed quotes turn the whole buffer stringy while typing, which is distracting2019-05-27
- Comments are muted and colors clash, making code hard to scan and distinguish2019-05-27
- Language mode regexps get confused so often they are more annoying than helpful2018-01-15
- Parentheses are rendered too dark and prominent, making code visually overwhelming2017-05-25
- Light gray comments are nearly invisible, so leftover commented-out code gets ignored2016-03-13
- Red error highlights on unfinished code constantly distract and break the author's train of thought2016-03-13
- Maintaining tmLanguage syntax files is tedious, so definitions end up buggy and outdated2015-04-08
- Dark blue syntax colours are hard to distinguish on black background2014-05-11
- Blue/yellow file change colours are non-intuitive compared to red/green2014-05-11
- Colours are distracting and hard to read due to uneven contrast2013-12-27
- Highlight colors become invisible on one of the terminal backgrounds2012-11-05