Re: https://social.wildeboer.net/users/jwildeboer/statuses/116860157329810170I realize this is beside the point, but personally I view the fact that code review is not considered interesting as a serious failure of computer science education. I'm invested in the latter, so it stands out for me.On the whole writers tend to love to read. I think they love it in part because their education led them to realize that learning to read well is both a good in itself and helps you become a better writer. Programming languages were designed to be human readable so that humans could read them. Yet we have a couple generations of people writing code most of whom were never explicitly taught how to read it, let alone learn to love reading it.#tech #dev #software #SoftwareDevelopment #ComputerProgramming #ComputerScience #ComputerScienceEducation
6 Comments
fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 0 pts · 38d
@abucci "Coders at Work" is a worthwhile read in this context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coders/_at/_Work
abucci@buc.ci · 0 pts · 38d
@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space One of the "coders" interviewed was an odious toadie of Jeffrey Epstein, one has some awful views including homophobic ones, and several others have become horrifyingly AI-pilled in recent years. I think I'll pass on this one I'm afraid to say.
fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 0 pts · 38d
@abucci no need to apologise. I read it before any of what you mention was evident.
In any case, what I was struck by on reading the book was how most of these 'luminaries' admitted they don't read other people's code.
abucci@buc.ci · 0 pts · 38d
@fluidlogic@oldbytes.space Hmm, yes. It makes sense. I don't think many do, frankly. I've asked software developers I've known over the years and virtually all admitted some variation of the same sentiment. I think it's a tragedy we don't teach this better. There is so much brilliance recorded in source code.
theluddite@assemblag.es · 0 pts · 38d
@abucci @fluidlogic
Judging from the state of the computer science literature, it seems like the disinterest in reading extends to natural language!
fluidlogic@oldbytes.space · 0 pts · 36d
@abucci coming back to this: the brilliant coders I've known did read other people's code, effortlessly.
I think it is genuinely a question of literacy. Low levels of code literacy are acceptable in the industry. The incentives in recruitment push programmers to demonstrate they can leet code, not that they can quickly read and understand code, including nuance and subtext. (Yes, of course code has subtext.)