Code editors, development environments, and program comprehension tools can also be helpful. Early evidence showed that simple features like syntax highlighting and careful typographic choices can improve the speed of program comprehension (Baecker 1988). I have also worked on several tools to support program comprehension, including the Whyline, which automates many of the more challenging aspects of navigating dependencies in code, and visualizes them (Ko & Myers 2009):
+The path from novice to expert in program comprehension is one that involves understanding programming language semantics exceedingly well and reading a lot of code, design patterns, and architectures. Anticipate that as you develop these skills, it will take you time to build robust understandings of what a program is doing, slowing down your writing, testing, and debugging.