Developers do not in fact tend to read all the software they use. I have never once looked at the code for jq, nor would I ever want to (the worst thing I could learn about that contraption is that the code is beautiful, and then live out the rest of my days conflicted about my feelings about it). This "developers read code" thing is just special pleading.

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hexaga 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You're a user of jq in the sense of the comment you're replying to, not a developer. The developer is the developer _of jq_, not developers in general.

	▲	fhd2 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, that's exactly how I meant it. I might _rarely_ peruse some code if I'm really curious about it, but by and large I just trust the developers of the software I use and don't really care how it works. I care about what it does.
	▲	Stefan-H 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		They can be “a developer” and use jq as a component within what they are developing. They do not need to be a developer of jq to have reason to look at jq’s code.
	▲	tptacek 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		We're talking about Show HN here.

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orwin 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But you read your coworkers PRs. I decided this week I wouldn't read/correct the AIgen doc and unit tests from 3 of my coworkers today, because else I would never be able to work. They produce twice as much poor output in 10 time the number of line change, that's too much.

	▲	tptacek 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Right, I'm not arguing developers don't read their own code or their teammates code or anything that merges to main in a repo they're responsible for. Just that the "it's only worth reading if someone took the time to actually write it" objection doesn't meaningfully apply to code in Show HN's --- there's no expectation that code gets read at all. That's why moderation is so at pains to ensure there's some way people can play with whatever it is being shown ("sign up pages can't be Show HN's").

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dingnuts 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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