Quote:
Originally Posted by avantman42
I can't think of a better colour, though, which is presumably why browsers default to blue fir links.
The trouble is, the colour needs to be distinct enough to stand out, and as soon as it does that, it becomes too distracting/eye-blowing.
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I think the idea that it has to "stand out" is what is wrong with the default settings in many source code syntax highlighters - the result is a mass of confusion to the eye that makes the material more difficult to read. Quotes don't exactly stand out, especially those books that use single quotes, but they are enough to make the meaning clear. So something more subtle may work. To borrow Hitch's example, we might have:
Freddy reposed on the chaise.
"Dahlink," he observed,
"those silk stockings drive me positively wild."
Or without the quotes that, in theory, should now be redundant:
Freddy reposed on the chaise.
Dahlink, he observed,
those silk stockings drive me positively wild.
Assuming we had colour ereaders (actually the above examples are in DarkSlateGray), then this might work - although readers would need different settings to support different types of colour-blindness.
Catlady, the point in source code editors is to help make relevant syntax details easily identifiable when writing and reviewing code, so I guess that could be extended to normal prose if desired, perhaps allowing colour to supplement (or even take over) the role of punctuation. I'm not convinced that it's a great idea, in prose there are other elements of the text beyond the raw syntax (attributions and layout) that contribute to the effectiveness of the existing punctuation, changing colours may distract from the effect of these elements.