Handwritten code

But what a privilege it is to read your code. I like that I can tell how it was worked out, with the occasional detritus of paths that were started and scrapped but imperfectly scrubbed over. I adore reading comments telling me what you were thinking about. I know you spent fifteen minutes figuring it out and you were kind enough to report on it, like leaving a trail marker as a quiet guiding hand for hikers to come. I know it was probably frustrating; I want to thank you for helping ease our way next time. I like that we have different conventions we’ve picked up in our programming journeys. I’ve learned to decipher the marks of each person’s hand in a code file, like tracing the size or slant or loopiness of handwriting on paper. One programmer I know enjoys terseness and the neat, complex puzzle of a ternary expression. Another programmer I know prefers not to use spaces in arrow function definitions. Sometimes variables are named matter-of-factly, sometimes cheekily. Semicolons…

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