The Visual Perception of Code

Written on 2018-06-09

How do we read code? Are there things we can do to make that reading more easy? I recently gave a talk about this exact topic.

In this talk, I gave six pointers to improve this visual perception, to make it easier to read your own code: fonts, code folding, colours, patterns, documentation and names.

These are the links mentioned in the video:

The colour scheme used is a port of Mozilla's Photon Light theme. Here's the PHPStorm version.

I you have any thoughts coming to mind, if you want to discuss this further or tell me I'm wrong; you can reach me on Twitter or via e-mail.

Things I wish I knew when I started programming

Things I wish I knew when I started programming cover image

This is my newest book aimed at programmers of any skill level. This book isn't about patterns, principles, or best practices; there's actually barely any code in it. It's about the many things I've learned along the way being a professional programmer, and about the many, many mistakes I made along that way as well. It's what I wish someone would have told me years ago, and I hope it might inspire you.

Read more

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