Does syntax highlighting help programming novices?

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 in this area originates from a time when programmers used a completely different tool chain. We examined the influence of syntax highlighting on novices’ ability to comprehend source code. Additional analyses cover the influence of task type and programming experience on the code comprehension ability itself and its relation to syntax highlighting. We conducted a controlled experiment with 390 undergraduate students in an introductory Java programming course. We measured the correctness with which they solved small coding tasks. Each test subject received some tasks with syntax highlighting and some without. The data provided no evidence that syntax highlighting improves novices’ ability to comprehend source code. There are very few similar experiments and it is unclear as of yet which factors impact the effectiveness of syntax highlighting. One major limitation may be the types of tasks chosen for this experiment. The results suggest that syntax highlighting squanders a feedback channel from the IDE to the programmer that can be used more effectively.