i wasn't talking about the ability to read code, even though that was my initial argument for rejecting colors. what i mean is that without colors i might take more effort to write/format code so that it is more readable, instead of relying on syntax highlighting:

with colors this is perfectly readable, because if, for and return appear in red, and other keywords in blue. so they stand out, making the structure more visible than without colors.

    mixed reduce(function fun, array arr, mixed|void zero) {
      if(sizeof(arr))
        zero = arr[0];
      for(int i=1; i<sizeof(arr); i++)
        zero = ([function(mixed,mixed:mixed)]fun)(zero, arr[i]);
      return zero; }

without colors i might prefer to write something like this. using braces around each block, and line breaks, to make each part stand out.

    mixed reduce(function fun, array arr, mixed|void zero)
    {
      if(sizeof(arr))
      {  
        zero = arr[0];
      }

      for(int i=1; i<sizeof(arr); i++)
      {
        zero = ([function(mixed,mixed:mixed)]fun)(zero, arr[i]);
      }

      return zero;
    }

without colors clearly the second is easier to read.

github uses a different color scheme but maybe you can get the idea:

https://github.com/pikelang/Pike/blob/fe4b7ef78cc26316e62e79...