Yes, but why can't some regular code (from an open sourced project) be used in the experiments? I'm sure there should be a way to do that.
It is just, that this synthetic code is broken. It doesn't read. There is no flow in it. It just looks from the first glance, like a non-interesting, unimportant piece, that doesn't do anything, so there is no point in reading it.
Does that sound convincing enough, that there is a big difference between reading synthetic examples and actual code?
Yes, it does. There was a study of how well people could remember positions of chess pieces on a board. The general public did equally badly for both random arrangements and those that could actually appear in a game, but skilled chess players did well remembering arrangements that could appear in a game, but were no better than the general public on random configurations.
It is just, that this synthetic code is broken. It doesn't read. There is no flow in it. It just looks from the first glance, like a non-interesting, unimportant piece, that doesn't do anything, so there is no point in reading it.
Does that sound convincing enough, that there is a big difference between reading synthetic examples and actual code?