[laumars]

But again, not of those problems you've described are unteachable. Source code itself doesn't read like how one would structure a paragraph for human consumption. But us programmers learn to parse source code because we read and write it frequently enough to learn to parse it. Just like how one might learn a human language by living and speaking in countries that speak that language.

If you've ever spent more than 5 minutes listening to arguments and counterarguments regarding Python whitespace vs C-style braces - or whether the C-style brace should append your statement for sit on its own line - then you'd quickly see that all these arguments about coding styles are really just personal preference based on what that particular developer is most used to (or pure aesthetics on what looks prettiest - that that's just a different angle of the same debate). Ultimately you were trained to read

    if (variable == value)

and thus equally you can train yourself to read

    if (value == variable)

All the reasons in the world you can't or shouldn't are just excuses to avoid retraining yourself. That's not to say I think everyone should write Yoda-style code - that's purely a matter of personal preference. But my point is arguing your preference as some tangible issue about legibility is dishonest to yourself and every other programmer.