Read the Code

Benjamin Melançon's picture
Submitted by Benjamin Melançon on 2010, October 16 - 18:53

Tags

  • learning
  • Look at the code.

    Read the tests.

    The community wrote the code because they love you. They wrote the documentation to prove it.

    It's all right to google first. It may be a good idea to pick a standard practice, code first or web search first.

    You will likely find the answer you are looking for.

    You also get a feel for the code, and how a particular project is structured, when looking through the code to find your answer.

    You will get better at your own coding as you observe and absorb different programming techniques and styles.

    You may learn new ways of doing things; a new approach to the issue you are working on. You can see how someone else solved a problem and think of better ways to solve the same or a similar problem yourself.

    As you look at code more and more, you will get faster and faster at tracking down where code is that you need. You can typically find answers in code as quickly as with a web search. Most likely, you will begin to like reading code. The code you create will improve.

  • Explanation

  • This is for the Participation chapter. Or...? Inspired by / adapted from http://railstips.org/blog/archives/2010/10/14/stop-googling/ @TODO incorporate more from http://www.skorks.com/2010/05/why-i-love-reading-other-peoples-code-and-you-should-too/
  • Book element

  • Concept