Matz on Craftmanship
Matz on Craftsmanship
Programmers can get a lot of benefit from reading source code. You can't simply tell people how to be good programmers. You can offer them some principles of good programming. You can describe some good design experiences you've had. But you can't give them a real knowledge of how to be a good programmer. I believe the best way for that knowledge to be obtained is by reading code. Writing code can certainly help people become good programmers, but reading good code is much better.
Programmers can get a lot of benefit from reading source code. You can't simply tell people how to be good programmers. You can offer them some principles of good programming. You can describe some good design experiences you've had. But you can't give them a real knowledge of how to be a good programmer. I believe the best way for that knowledge to be obtained is by reading code. Writing code can certainly help people become good programmers, but reading good code is much better.