What does code readability mean?

Re:What does code readability mean? by dahart on Monday January 08, 2018 @10:36AM (#16097404)

I'd say don't try to use Cynefin's definition to understand what the PEP authors means. (Un)known unknowns is a pretty terrible definition of those words, it doesn't really match the common definitions at all.

Complex and complicated are, according to the dictionary, basically synonymous, and they mean something intricate or tricky that is composed of many interconnected parts.

I think the PEP authors were trying to say it's better for a piece of code to be clever and tricky to avoid complicated interactions with other code, if that's your only choice. I think they're trying to suggest complexity at a small scale is better than complexity at a large scale. But I'm just guessing, and I do think it could be better stated with two words that aren't synonymous.

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Re:What does code readability mean? by carlmr on Tuesday January 09, 2018 @06:49AM (#16105408)

In a uni course a while back they did define complex as something that can't be understood, and complicated as something that is understandable but hard.

So I agree with the above poster that the PEP makes no sense here.

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Re:What does code readability mean? by dahart on Tuesday January 09, 2018 @10:24AM (#16106760)

Complex does not mean something that can't be understood. Like Cynefin, your uni course might also using bad definitions, if they meant those definitions for the general context. If they were giving you domain specific definitions, like in a math course or something, then your applying it to this situation might be your misunderstanding. We have dictionaries for just this purpose, so that we all agree what words mean. Words also have multiple meanings, so while it may be true that what the PEP authors said makes no sense to you, it's best if we avoid egg on our faces by calling someone else wrong if the problem is that we didn't take the time to understand what they meant, or assumed incorrectly that our understanding is the only one possible.

The common definitions of complex and complicated are that they're synonymous, there is no strong or fundamental distinction between them in the way you're trying to suggest. That's the main problem with the PEP statement. Trying to assert there's a difference is likely to result in miscommunication, this uni course and the PEP authors are both making the same mistake.

adjective 1. composed of elaborately interconnected parts; complex: complicated apparatus for measuring brain functions.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/complicated

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/complex

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/complicated

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complex

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complicated

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/compl...

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