Motivation
Minimal highlighting
Having minimal amount of rules means you can consciously use them to look for the exact piece of information you need.
Focus on what matters
If you need to look for a string you know that you’re looking for a green token and all the strings are really pop out because there are not many other things highlighted.
Stable reading
It’s hard to scan code when it jumps between normal, bold and italics all the time. Also, not all fonts provide bold or italics variants.
Comments are important
If code was complex enough that it deserved an explanation then we should see and read it first. It would be a crime to hide it.
Your brain will thank you
When highlighting works reliably, your brain learns to rely on it. When it's not, your brain spends precious resources to re-check everything it sees on the screen.
Best Font Forever
Fira Code is the perfect font that supports programming ligatures to be used with Alabaster. Both are carefully crafted by the same author.