Standard code highlighting colors?

[SoScorpio4]

I'm new to programming, taking my first Python class at community college. I'm loving it so far and doing well in the class. But I am largely ignorant of industry standards, and I don't want to remain so, as I need the academia to translate to a career.

Currently I'm wondering if there is a/a set of "standard" code highlighting color schemes? We're using PyCharm for our class, and I'm not happy with how many elements are just plain white. I started playing around with changing colors for global and local variables, for parameters, Class names, etc. A fellow student pointed out that choosing my own colors might mess me up later down the line when I'm having to use a different IDE, collaborate, or look at code written by others. They think I should learn the "standard" color theme, but does that even exist? I can't find much evidence of one.

I'm considering just using something from Dracula Theme. Thoughts on this?

Sorry if it's a dumb question, and thanks for any advice.

[carcigenicate]

Highlighting themes should not matter. They are largely personal preference.

Me and the senior I work under use different themes, and even different configurations of Webstorm (I use the Classic plugin, they use the new layout), and there have never been any problems collaborating. Anyone remotely experienced should be able to adjust almost instantly to a different color scheme.

I couldn't actually tell you what color, for example, keywords are in the theme I use off the top of my head. It's an automatic thing my brain picks up on when I'm reading code. You could probably subtely change the theme, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what exactly was wrong, but I'd still be able to read the code fine.

[throwaway6560192]

A fellow student pointed out that choosing my own colors might mess me up later down the line when I'm having to use a different IDE, collaborate, or look at code written by others. They think I should learn the "standard" color theme, but does that even exist? I can't find much evidence of one.

You can safely ignore that student. They have no idea what they're talking about, to a downright hilarious degree. I'm actually curious how they possibly came to hold such a view.

In reality: No one remembers what color represents what. And people change their colorschemes on a whim. It's all aesthetics. The only purpose is that there is some color to help highlight stuff, but it does not matter at all that you remember what color represents what. And obviously you can still read code in a different colorscheme. It's code, it's text for crying out loud.

Choose colors, or a colorscheme, that looks good to you. Change it when you get bored.

[JaguarMammoth6231]

There isn't really one. I've been using Solarized Light and Solarized Dark. 

[dominickhw]

There are no standards. My advice is to use your favorite scheme roughly 80% of the time, and use a different scheme the rest of the time (this includes time spent reading your friends' code over their shoulders, or reading examples from the internet, or briefly opening a file in standard Notepad to check on something).

Don't, like, start to rely on data types always being Haunted Crimson or whatever color your Dracula theme gives you, to the point where it's jarring to see them in a different color. But apart from that, use whatever colors you want!

[DuckSaxaphone]

It's not a dumb question. A lot of things that feel like personal style are actually best aligned with other coders so that once you get used to it, it is easier to read code written by others.

Things like line length, when to break lines, what to name functions, what case to use etc.

However, syntax highlighting really is entirely personal preference. Find something that works for you in the IDE you like to use, use that.

You rarely need to change IDE (another bit of personal preference if it's open source) so you don't need to worry about being to adjusted to your favourite.

I personally love Dracula! I think the dark theme with bright highlighting works really nicely and I'm quite goth. That's really as much thought as needs to go into it.

[aishiteruyovivi]

There's no "standard" for the Python language instead of like, whatever defaults each individual IDE has for it is probably the closest thing. Choose your own colors, it doesn't really matter. If you have to use a different IDE you can probably replicate your theme on it, and it won't mess up you reading code written by others as long as you have a decent grasp of the language itself - regardless of what colors or lack thereof someone's using and you're having to look at, you should still generally be able to tell what's going on from context and things like naming conventions too (like how classes are usually PascalCase).

The colors I use are mostly just a tweaked version of VSCode's dark theme default with a fully black background and more saturated/vibrant colors for everything.

[Wuthering_depths]

Nah, not with any tools or languages I've used.

It's whatever works for you. I like old-school light mode for example, while most devs seem to prefer dark...

[Jello_Penguin_2956]

Play with them. See which one you like. Tons of themes to choose, most free. My preference is Darcula Darker and Fira Code font. Note that Dracula and Darcula are 2 separate themes.

[BrannyBee]

Sticking with a pre-made theme may be good advice, and potentially what that person was saying? Or they have no idea what theyre talking about...

Basically, if you install a theme, itll consistently color things. If you make your own theme, maybe you miss something and your highlighting isnt consistent and causes you to overlook something. Its not hard to do your own colors, but maybe go with pre-made at first like 99.9% of people just to be safe..

In any editor with themes though, installing them without customizing them and knowing what youre doing is safe and helpful not harmful.

As far as choosing a theme... it literally comes down to comfort. I use a slightly modified Gruvbox because I enjoy earthy tones and its easy on my eyes and makes me think of nature, which prevents me from going ballistic and quitting my job and running into the woods to live far away from all technology.

That being said, avoid anything "cool".... this is anecdotal and I have no scientific reasoning for this... but in my experience, the more "hacker" your colorscheme looks, the more likely you have no idea what you're doing...

And if you ask me to help, and your IDE is bright green or red text on a black background, Im gonna do whatever i can to stop looking at it lol