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MASTERING THE ART OF
READING CODE

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AQA Geek, mentor,
speaker, consultant and
open-source contributor.
• Technical QA Manager
• Consultant: http://sdclabs.com
• GitHub contributor: sskorol
Speaker’s info
• Email: serhii.s.korol@gmail.com
• Twitter: @ss_korol
Contacts
Sergey Korol
Waverley Software
‘‘
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WHO AM I?

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701 contributions in the last
year
34% code
review
HOW MUCH SHOULD I READ A
DAY?

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THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF
THE BIARN
I cna elasiy rade tihs ifrontamoin.
It manes taht oru barin has
amiznag pewor! As I culod raed
scuh pecie of txet woihtut ayn
porlebm, I nac laren woh to rade
ceod as wlel. Tsurt yuro biran adn
it wlil ecixte yuo!

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THE BRAIN ACTIVATION WHILE
READING

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Visual word form area (letterbox
Access to
pronunciation and
articulation
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THE BRAIN ARCHITECTURE FOR
READING
Visual inputsAccess to meaning

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WHY IT’S HARD TO
UNDERSTAND CODE?

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MENTAL MODELS

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MILLER’S WALLET

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CONTEXT MATTERS
I shoot
people…
And sometimes cut off their
heads.

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COLLECTING
METADATA

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DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE /
REQUIREMENTS

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ARCHITECTURE

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PROJECT STRUCTURE
Projec
t ArtOfM
RC.github
kubernet
esmysql
ui-tests
web
frontend
backend
compone
nts
Projec
t
frontend
public
src
assets
web
services
stores
Projec
t
backend
e2e
src
auth
web
cache
role
user

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WHEN DO WE READ
CODE?

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WHEN DO WE READ CODE?
• Job interview
• Project on-boarding
• Specific solutions
lookup
• Articles / courses
• Code review
• Open-source

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WHEN DO WE READ CODE?
• Job interview
• Project on-boarding
• Specific solutions
lookup
• Articles / courses
• Code review
• Open-source

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WHEN DO WE READ CODE?
• Job interview
• Project on-boarding
• Specific solutions
lookup
• Articles / courses
• Code review
• Open-source

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HOW DO WE READ
CODE?

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ABSTRACT AWAY FROM DETAILS

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• Pay attention to names
• Avoid focusing on implementation
details
• Think about usage context
• Describe what you see in a single
sentence
ABSTRACT AWAY FROM DETAILS

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PATTERNS RECOGNITION

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• Learn common design patterns
• Locate common patterns in existing
code base
• Focus on your daily reading style and
find out how does your brain optimize
different code parts
PATTERNS RECOGNITION

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DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

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• Coding standards are finalized
• Git flow is selected / hooks are configured
• Branch / commit message conventions are
set
• Key branches are protected
• Minimal amount of approvers is set
• Code owners are assigned
• Required checks are integrated into dev
ToDo before code review integration:
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

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• The code is well-designed
• The functionality is good for users of the code
• The code isn’t overcomplicated
• There’s no code “for future” if it’s not required
right now
• Tests are present and well-designed
• The code conforms style guides and name
ToDo while reviewing someone
else’s code:
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

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CONCLUSIONS
• Keep reading code to improve
writing skills
• Collect metadata to reduce
reading effort
• Practice abstract thinking
• Learn existing / highlight new
patterns

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FIND OUT MORE
LinksAuthor
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