The Influence of Syntax Highlighting on Scanning and Reading Behaviour for Source Code

Abstract

The digital market, including electronic books, has grown substantially over the past few years. The abundance of information may be particularly useful within academic fields. However, certain disciplines, such as computer science, may require additional considerations regarding formatting for electronic text books. This study investigated the influence of syntax highlighting on reading source code snippets, as it pertains to the two distinctive phases present when reading code. Participants were presented with a code snippet in either black-and-white or using standard syntax highlighting. Fixation timelines indicated that the distinctive phases exhibited when programmers read an unfamiliar code snippet, were present regardless of the presentation of the code. Furthermore, neither the fixation durations nor the number of fixations were significantly influenced by the presence (or absence) of syntax highlighting. Additionally, paired tests indicated that the reading behaviour of participants did not differ between the scanning and the reading phase, signifying that the cognitive load is not significantly different between phases. It can therefore be concluded that the lack of syntax highlighting does not adversely affect the reading behaviour present in the phases of code reading.