The "unreadable" or "annoying" example from the article is only unreadable and annoying because the programmer was new to the project when he read the two offen

The "unreadable" or "annoying" example from the article is only unreadable and annoying because the programmer was new to the project when he read the two offending lines of code. I believe Stroustrup is correct that we're all beginners at some point, but we quickly move up. It makes more sense to optimize for "proficient, but not expert" than to optimize for "beginner," because more people are at the proficient level, and they stay there longer. I agree that code shouldn't be unnecessarily complex. But I would quit any project that constantly brought up "but what if a programmer were brand new when they looked at this code?" in reviews. Then again, if other programmers have the same reaction, perhaps the project really would be full of nothing but beginners.