Abstract for: Syntax highlighting for SD modeling

When working with SD models, the equation for even a single variable can get very long and convoluted, making them difficult to grasp. This issue is neither new nor unique to SD: programmers face a similar challenge with code in every programming language. To help manage this, programming has long since come up with an approach aiding programmers in reading complex code: Syntax highlighting (a.k.a. code coloring). Text editors that have been specifically built for coding typically recognize the programming language by means of file extensions and then automatically colorize / emphasize different parts in the code syntax, (e.g. comments, key words or math operators) in different colors or font styles. This can also be of help for SD modelers, because such text editors can be taught to custom-colorize / -emphasize syntax of equations in SD models by treating them as custom programming languages. SD modelers can use this to view single equations or a whole SD model as colored text in such text editors, making it easier to read and grasp. In the medium term, it would also be desirable if developers of SD software would add syntax highlighting capabilities into the equation editors of their modeling software packages.