Editing Source code (section)

===Communication===
Source code is also used to communicate [[algorithm]]s between people {{endash}} e.g., [[code snippets]] online or in books.<ref name=Spinellis>Spinellis, D: ''Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective''. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003. {{ISBN|0-201-79940-5}}</ref>

[[Programmer|Computer programmers]] may find it helpful to review existing source code to learn about programming techniques.<ref name=Spinellis/> The sharing of source code between developers is frequently cited as a contributing factor to the maturation of their programming skills.<ref name=Spinellis/> Some people consider source code an expressive [[Media (arts)|artistic medium]].<ref>"''Art and Computer Programming''" [http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/06/30/artofprog.html ONLamp.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220045508/http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/06/30/artofprog.html |date=20 February 2018 }}, (2005)</ref>

Source code often contains [[comment (programming)|comment]]s—blocks of text marked for the compiler to ignore. This content is not part of the program logic, but is instead intended to help readers understand the program.{{sfn|Kaczmarek ''et al.''|2018|p=68}}

Companies often keep the source code confidential in order to hide algorithms considered a [[trade secret]]. Proprietary, secret source code and algorithms are widely used for sensitive government applications such as [[criminal justice]], which results in [[black box]] behavior with a lack of [[Transparency (behavior)|transparency]] into the algorithm's methodology. The result is avoidance of public scrutiny of issues such as bias.{{sfn|Katyal|2019|pp=1186–1187}}