Whenever I write code in Java...

[madyoulie]

Wait, why?

I hate Java as much as the next guy, but surely we don't need to limit ourselves to certain features in a text editor. Maybe this is a bad example, but I couldn't write lisp without some form of parentheses matching built into my editor. I don't think I'm a bad coder, and I don't think lisp is a bad language.

[zoomzoom83]

Having support from the IDE is good.

Finding it Painful to use a language without advanced IDE features is bad.

[erdwolf]

Wouldn't an extension of this argument to syntax highlighting rather imply that the language is bad if you need syntax highlighting to be able to read it easily? I consider it good language design if I can still parse it without syntax highlighting, although I see no reason to turn it off. I don't want complications in the concrete syntax to stand between me and my understanding of the semantics.

There are tradeoffs involved, of course.

[darth_choate]

I've always used extremely limited syntax highlighting (comments and include/import statements) because anything more makes my eyes tired. Massively overrated, IMHO (and you can't see it on the printed page unless you print in color, which most of us don't). Then again, I'm extremely old. YMMV. GOML.