Highlighting vs Plain Text Display

Developers should learn and use highlighting to improve code readability, debugging efficiency, and user experience in their applications meets developers should use plain text display when working with command-line tools, logs, configuration files, or data streams that require minimal processing and maximum portability. Here's our take.

Highlighting

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use highlighting to improve code readability, debugging efficiency, and user experience in their applications

Pros

• It is essential in integrated development environments (IDEs) for syntax highlighting, which color-codes different language elements to reduce errors and speed up coding
• Related to: user-interface-design, data-visualization

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Plain Text Display

Developers should use Plain Text Display when working with command-line tools, logs, configuration files, or data streams that require minimal processing and maximum portability

Pros

• It is essential for debugging, scripting, and environments where bandwidth or processing power is limited, as it reduces overhead and ensures consistent output regardless of the viewing context
• Related to: command-line-interface, text-editors

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Highlighting is a concept while Plain Text Display is a tool. We picked Highlighting based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Highlighting wins

Based on overall popularity. Highlighting is more widely used, but Plain Text Display excels in its own space.