When I learned programming as a kid, I wondered what ’real code’ looked like – written by real programmers.

This was in the 80s, so it wasn’t easy to find examples. I bought Dr Dobb’s Journal when I could afford to, and pored over the source listings.

Later, my first job was at the Stockholm Stock Exchange – where software was developed in-house! I remember trying to get glimpses of code as I passed by offices of programmers – on screens or dot-matrix print-outs.

This excitement lasts to this day – each time I start a new assignment and get to go over the codebase.