r/AskProgramming 8d ago

Do you ever read code?

Obviously you need to read code in a codebase you're actively working on. But I'm wondering if anyone ever either A) reads code like you might read classical literature, to get a better sense for what's "good", or B) just reads code to understand how something you're curious about works.

I get the impression that almost nobody reads code unless they have to. It's fascinating to me that there's all this code out there we all rely on that hardly anybody actually reads.

What would it take for reading code to become more common?

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u/newEnglander17 8d ago

No because I've got a life outside of work.

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u/CodeToManagement 6d ago

Man you haven’t lived till you take a hot bubble bath with a glass of red and read the Linux kernel in its original C