Loosely related thoughts;
It seems to me that while Python substitutes indentation for braces ChucK uses the "read left to right" strategy to remove (some) braces. This is interesting to me in this context; I write quite a lot of Scheme and because of the amount of braces there I think I would be unable to do that without highlighting; not really a friendly language for people with visual challenges. ChucK does away with some of that, as long as we have a linear signal-flow, but clearly not nearly with all of it. I don't think we would want to go that far because some structures in the code reflect structures in the sounds that we use. One possible approach to this could be using interface sonification instead of highlighting. Pitches could be used to indicate how deeply nested the cursor currently is, for example. This kind of sonification could be used a bit like those DJ programs work. By that I mean two "mixes" could be made, one aimed at the programmer, one meant to be recorded or broadcasted to a live audience.
Just thinking out loud,
Kas.