reading code Archives

November 22, 2024November 22, 2024

Reading Code Is Hard, and tips to improve

We spend more time reading code than writing it

This week's video for Dave Farley's Continuous Delivery YouTube channel is me ranting about why reading code sucks, and offering some advice on how to improve.

"Every programmer occasionally, when nobody’s home, turns off the lights, pours a glass of scotch, puts on some light German electronica, and opens up a file on their computer. They read over the lines, and weep at their beauty…."
https://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

The original idea for this video is from my presentation Reading Code Is Harder Than Writing It, which I only got to present twice. I feel like I never quite got the hang of what I was trying to say in the talk, but honestly that's normal for any presentation I've given less than three times.

October 24, 2020October 24, 2020

Who’s “Allowed” To Review Code?

Guess what? A conversation I was having on Twitter got me excited enough to blog again. Perhaps reading Twitter isn't such a depressing waste of time after all.

The problem with code reviews is that it is too easy to end to end up with code targeted at the lowest common denominator of the ability of the reviewers.
— Ihe Onwuka (@mazihe) October 21, 2020

September 7, 2020September 7, 2020

Reading Code is a Skill

Picture of a stick person reading computer code

I'm inspired to write this post because Someone Is Wrong On The Internet. Of course a more accurate statement would be "I disagree with some aspects of what someone on the internet said, even though they have an entirely valid point of view". But that's less catchy.