Description Missing name 2004-09-01 11:01:05 EDT

There is a well known visual design pattern often used in rendering widgets that
contain rows (tables, lists, etc) to enhance the readibility of the widgets
contents. The most recognizable example being a table with each row alternating
its background color between two colors (light yellow and white for example).
This creates a clean and easily recognizable delineation between which data
belongs with which row. The same strategy can be applied to the methods of a
Java class. If methods had alternating background colors, it would be
easier/quicker to recognize method start/end points versus visually having to
parse indentation, comments, declaration, terminating brace, etc to achieve the
same thing. Especially while browsing code (versus authoring) this can really
increase the readability and easily allow a person to "drop" all the other code
that is visible as clutter. This is really an extension of the syntax hilighting
scheme, only it applies to the background color or a given target versus the
font attributes and foreground color.