colors

[matthandlersux]

for readability, it might be nice to colorize the output that is code vs text. additionally, you could make keyword matches bold.

[roryokane]

Colorizing code differently from text sounds good. Howdoi could have code be all blue, and text be black. Or it could even syntax highlight the code – either highlighting the code itself using Pygments or somehow copying Stack Overflow’s span tags and converting those to color codes.

I oppose the idea of bolding keyword matches. Usually, what I have searched for is everywhere in the answer, and I don’t have any trouble finding where in the answer my query is discussed. This is what keyword bolding would look like for howdoi calendar rails (the first query I found whose answer is text and not code):

I have doing some sort of similar project with Rails event calendar. As my knowledge there are no specific GEM or plug-in for your requirement.But you can customize the event calendar. So you need to add that by manually.

The bolding doesn’t help me read the answer; it’s just distracting.

That answer demonstrates another place where color might be useful: links. In the answer above, “Rails event calendar” is a link. The answer text would be more understandable if it were blue in the howdoi output while the surrounding text was black. (Of course, you still wouldn’t be able to click on the link in the command line, but at least you would know that you should follow the answer link for more information, using the -l flag.)

[anthonypt87]

Also of note, syntax highlighting! #20

[gleitz]

Going to close this issue in light of #20.