Reading Code Difficulty
The cluster debates why reading code, especially others' code, is harder than writing it, and stresses the value of readable code and comprehension skills for developers.
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Why is reading code harder than writing it?
The issue is more with "reading code from other people written like that" and less with "understanding your own code".
Makes sense, reading someone else's code is generally harder than reading your own.
Reading other people's code is often more challenging than writing it yourself.
people are frequently quite bad at writing code to be read, so actually understanding what's going on can be a mess.
Understanding other people's code (for better or worse) makes you a better developer.
If we struggle to reason about code we've written, perhaps we weren't so good at writing code?
Reading code is harder than writing it. Don't rely on maintaining your devs' app as a way to learn.
It's harder to read bad code than to write it.
Writing code is hard, so there's nothing wrong with reading it being hard too. (I'm only half kidding).