Re: The way to read STL source code
Stanley Rice <heconghui@gmail.com> wrote:
someone told me that it is a *good* way
to learn some language by reading others' code.
I don't understand where that misconception comes from. It's an extremely
naive concept that is probably spouted mostly by people without actual
expertise in programming.
A program is the implementation of the solution to a problem. Seeing
only the program, without any explanation of it, it's usually very hard
to understand what exactly is the solution it's implementing, or even to
which problem. If the program is well commented (which is an utter rarity)
it might help some, but it's still hard.
Even more importantly, a program is a *particular solution* to a more
generic problem. You would be learning *that particular solution* rather
than the generic principle behind it. This could, at worse, lead to
cargo cult programming, where you blindly use a programming technique
in situations where it's not at all well suited, without understanding
the theory behind that particular solution.
And this is all assuming that the program is good and competently made.
That, in itself, is also a rare happenstance. If the program you are reading
happens to be pure crap, you might be learning bad habits and the wrong ways
of doing things. (Granted, the standard library is probably significantly
more competently implemented than your average C++ program, but still.)