Incremental Highlighting for Scala | The IntelliJ Scala Plugin Blog

Incremental highlighting for Scala in IntelliJ IDEA offers a novel approach to code analysis by focusing on the visible area of code rather than the entire file, which enhances responsiveness and reduces resource consumption. This approach diverges from traditional compilers that analyze entire files, as IDEs like IntelliJ can re-highlight only parts of a file, optimizing CPU usage and extending battery life. By enabling incremental highlighting in Scala's editor settings, users experience smoother scrolling and efficient memory usage, especially beneficial for the complex nature of Scala code. Although some inspections remain inactive, this method allows for quicker code navigation and reduced distraction from unrelated errors. The feature, which has been available since version 2024.3, is still under development, and users are encouraged to provide feedback to help refine its capabilities further.