How to improve your reading and understanding of code? [closed]

Answer 1

I agree with reading open source coding. There is a book by O'reilly on Beautiful Code - but it sucks in my opinion. I would suggest books that I have read to prepare for programming interviews, and that are often suggested (all the links that I have put up are Google Books links:

[Programming Pearls] is a good one (get the newer edition, though the concepts are the same), [The Practice of Programming] is another classic.

These are pretty practical books with real code world examples

Also, practice writing test code for already existing projects. This tends to help you out by causing you to be forced to understand exactly what the function does. If the results aren't what you expected, you are forced to think about why the person's code doesn't work as you expected for those tests. Browsing around StackOverflow and seeing what people with high reputation have to say always helps too.

Answer 2

Don't just read open-source code, join one. This way you can ask "why was it written this way" vs. just simply reading it. More often than not, there was an underlying reason for doing something abnormal, be it authentic or not.

Also, if you are actively involved, you will be able to see the progression of the codebase. You'll become familiar with the style of development from different people. This may provide different avenues for your brain to walk through when you encounter a non-affiliated project that you need to read through.

Answer 3

i personally believe in the

"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -Martin Fowler

so my approach would be to find that person and blow his head off so s/he doesn't spead this virus.