I've been working without highlighting for ~6 months, and I've gotten faster at scanning, not slower.
Feel free to keep doing what you're doing, but making assumptions about workflows that you're unwilling to try is not helpful or convincing.
Feel free to keep doing what you're doing, but making assumptions about workflows that you're unwilling to try is not helpful or convincing.
I also question that you indeed are a faster scanner. Here's a specific example I wonder if your scanning would win out on -- Xcode turns internal Cocoa classes blue whereas your own classes are green. You quickly know what you coded and what you didn't. Not helpful? Should already know? I wonder if you inherited someone else's code base if you would enjoy the green immediate feedback rather than the inference you would otherwise have to take.
When working without highlighting, I rely on the shape of the code's text and the search function of my editor to navigate as I jump around code. With syntax highlighting, I have those tools, and extra navigational cues provided by little islands of color.
I haven't noticed a difference in my scanning speed or code comprehension between the two. It may be there, but I'm not conscious of it. Consciously, I've got a slight preference for the colorization. It makes the code feel "friendlier", and I'm happier to be looking at it. The un-highlighted environments tend to be older Unix machines with other annoyances in the operating experience, so I'm sure that plays a lot into my perception.