Agree. But... It might actually hurt? Having rainbow colored guitar strings (to see their difference more clearly) would give me very childish vibes. Before disparaging them though I would first consider whether they actually might be useful but would quickly determine that you don't really need physical colors to differentiate the strings, since the brain over time develops various mental models to identify/differentiate them. But... if most guitars had colored strings and everyone would learn using them to begin with there would be a lot of people defending them when criticized. Criticism would be something like "but it's so much clearer to see which is which" and "bet you have trouble finding the G string", "if it doesn't hurt, why criticize it?".
One clear example for me is that using `less` is always painful for me due to having used syntax highlighting as a crutch for so long. Those not using colored stuff will feel right at home with a wider range of tools. Just like people who don't use colored guitar strings can pick up any guitar.
If you're always using your own gear then there's not that much downside to customizing it. Unless those times where you need to use something else is of utter importance.
tl;dr: It definitely hurts something. Question is to which extent. Answer to that is probably that it depends.
I don't mean to dictate how anyone views it; just saying that you can't generalise about people's needs.
highlight -O ansi file.txt | less -R
The Python syntax in Debian's highlight isn't quite right, but feel free to use your favourite syntax highlighter. That's what the UNIX philosophy is all about!
You're taking this in weird directions. Are you trying to argue that there are no benefits to being comfortable reading code without syntax highlighting because there are tools you can apply in every scenario?
And just to counter your suggestion I often use `less` in environments where I am unable to install anything (or it doesn't make much sense to, like a Docker container).
You're trying to apply technical solutions to a problem where I was trying to highlight (pun intended) the cognitive function of a mind trained to read code without syntax highlighting vs one reliant on it (like my own). It doesn't matter if you can solve this particular one. Nor does it change the fact that someone who is used to seeing monochrome code might view colored code as playful and/or childish (like seeing colored piano keys).
I wasn't trying to argue more than that one point: the stuff about `less` was just in case you didn't know about the alternatives. I have no argument with the third paragraph of your most recent comment.
I would argue that it makes sense to install any tools that would help you, in your development environment, and that it makes little sense to ship an entire OS in your Docker container, so you shouldn't be in a situation where you have `less` and no syntax highlighting – but I'd argue with a lot of aspects of Docker-driven development, and I've learned there's little point.
