> This stuff about "reading code" is basically bullshit and nobody does it.
Some guy says in an interview it's bullshit, so it is?
You never read other people's code? Not when the documentation's lacking? Not when the documentation's fine, for a framework say, but you need to see an example of how it's actually used in the context of a real application?
The implication that I get from the quote is that people don't read code for the sake of reading code.
And that matches my experience: When I read code, it's precisely because the documentation is lacking, or because I want to match up an error message produced by the code with the logic preceding the error message's origin.
I think the best way to both read code and gain experience is to set a goal of at least weekly or monthly contributions to a couple of open codebases that benefit your life.
But if you look at the article you'll see what I think is a salient point -- looking at code and figuring out how it works often looks more like an "investigation" (like, set some breakpoints and step through it, for instance). It's nothing like sitting in front of a fireplace with a novel.
Choose your own adventure books are still reading though.
I think that there's also a much more similarity with analyzing a novel than reading one for pleasure. Reading code has a much greater mental tax than pleasure reading, it requires more focus to actually put together what's going on, and that's similar to analyzing a novel for a report, where you might read the same passage 4-5 times, taking notes. Or even better yet, analyzing a poem, which are often short (and often obey 80 char line width rules!) and analyzing them can require a great amount of focus and thought to decide why a poet used this word in this way, and what meaning they intended to convey and such. That's much more similar to reading code than reading a novel, and I expect also less common.
Some guy says in an interview it's bullshit, so it is?
You never read other people's code? Not when the documentation's lacking? Not when the documentation's fine, for a framework say, but you need to see an example of how it's actually used in the context of a real application?