More code please, we’re geeks | cbd

Bradley Dilger’s talk from this morning’s Computers and Writing town hall.

Reading code means language awareness — knowing how to read code, and where to find it, but also the different forms it comes in. We think first about markup and source code, but we need to consider standards, specificiations, documentation, APIs, and other texts which supplement code. In fact, much of code reading is these related texts. We know from Agile development that when writing, we need to keep pushing software out the door, rather than obsess over these supporting texts. However, as we learn and teach, they can be a focus. So we need to pay attention to associated reading, developer tool kits and frameworks, as well as what might be called “the code itself.” —More code please, we’re geeks | cbd.