I agree on that previous comment of IDEs as a "crutch". Nothing beats emacs. I don't actually see how syntax highlighting helps; I've used a couple of crappy editors like that myself and it only serves to confuse me WHILE I'm typing since the comment coloring and other colors may be changing as you type. What a waste of CPU time! emacs makes any code as readable as it's gonna get. There is such a thing as too many options (especially useless options). If you can't imagine and plan your program in your own head, then you shouldn't have become a programmer.