Q:

Introduce syntax highlighting for fixed font messages in chat

For a chat that's supposedly catering for developers, it lacks developer specific features. Reading code fragments in messages is annoying because there is no syntax highlighting.
The existing solution is already used on the SO proper: deduce the language from the list of the tags on the chatroom (just like SO does with the tags on the question)

A:

This would work well, if the algorithm that detects what programming language a code block is based on its contents and the tags was perfect. But it's not. In many cases, it does identify the language correctly; in cases where it doesn't, the lang-default scheme works well enough. But in certain cases, the lang-default scheme completely screws up the highlighting, in such a way that the code is better off not highlighted at all.
If the feature, as implemented, is going to force automatic language detection on every code block without a way to specify a hint when needed, I'd rather none be highlighted at all. I've never had any issues with reading code on chat as it is, and I've never heard any chat user complain about the lack of syntax highlighting, even in code that I share. On the other hand, I've heard many chat users complain about people dumping entire class definitions into chat and failing to explain their problem, as often seen on SO proper.
If the feature, as implemented, is going to allow hinting individual code blocks per message (as well as the choice of opting out entirely with lang-none), I could see that getting somewhere. It depends on how exactly this hinting feature would be implemented (add Markdown hints to the chat message parser? Have a separate dialog for it?). But this is chat we're talking about, not Q&A. Plus, only a fraction of the sites on the network will benefit from this feature. I reckon the developers will prioritize based on that.

