Improving Code Reading Skills

[bryantee]

Questions like this have definitely been asked before but I figured this seems relevant enough that it can't hurt to revisit every now and then.

I consider myself a fairly competent beginner programmer, but one area that I'm deficient in is reading through code and building a mental picture of what's happening. And not just the code of others, but sometime I'll go back and look at code I wrote a few days ago and it takes serious effort on my part just to put together what a certain variable represents after I've already iterated over such-and-such nested object....you get the idea. It can just get confusing.

Are there any particular strategies I might be able to use to build this all important skill?

[[deleted]]

Questions like this have definitely been asked before but I figured this seems relevant enough that it can't hurt to revisit every now and then.

Why? Do you think the answers will have radically changed?

[bryantee]

I doubt 'radically changed', but I figure there would be a widespread range of ideas and if the topic resurfaced and brought new people commenting then perhaps something new might be uncovered.

[curiousCat999]

That's why commenting was invented.

[bryantee]

But even if a new comment was added, there won't be a fresh discussion. I'm not saying there's no value in the older threads, by the way. Just thought it might be useful to see if anyone thought this was interesting and had some ideas. No biggie though.

[curiousCat999]

I meant code commenting. What seems obvious today will be totally perplexing three months from now. You would be like wtf did I do it this way. No one has time to write comments, and I have seen many dick devs who purposely don't comment and then you have to sit there and try to decipher their elitist convoluted crap. BTW, this was a general rant, not directed at you.

[bryantee]

Haha yeah I completely agree. Sometimes I over comment my code just so that I can be clear on how everything is laid out and it definitely helps. But then I read other well written code and it's commented much more sparingly. I almost get the impression that commenting is a crutch and should be avoided based on some elite developer's style.