To Code or Not to Code, Revisited

So, I ranted about code in static papers a while back (someone asked me about this – so I’d figure allow me to do a follow up), but what if your code is the real star of the show? Can you still sneak some in without drowning readers in curly braces?

Yes.

If your snippets are absolutely critical—like the secret sauce that everyone needs to see—fine, slip in a few lines. Just make them short and sweet. No one wants to navigate a labyrinth of semicolons; your readers only care about that one essential function or loop that proves your point. But don’t stop there: you still need to explain why those lines matter. If you’re showing off a special parsing trick or a brand-new algorithm, tell us why it’s special—don’t just paste it and pray.

Most importantly, provide a link to the full code in its natural habitat, whether that’s GitHub or another platform. Readers who truly want to dig deeper will thank you for letting them see—and run—the real thing, rather than forcing them to squint at a crammed PDF. Give context, give clarity, and keep the clutter to a minimum. After all, no one’s going to appreciate a code dump… not even your future self re-reading that paper.

Keep it stupid simple. KISS.