Can a mediocre programmer tell the difference between mediocre code and good code?
Maybe not directly, but they can probably tell how well they understand the code and how hard it is to change. Not as well as a good programmer, since they'll have more trouble with both regardless, but somewhat.
My bad; thanks to philwelch and saraid for flagging the error. The resulting discussion is interesting, as is 13 upvotes for a post based on a misreading :-). FWIW, my favorite bit on programmer's understanding each other's work is Yegge's Done and Gets Things Smart.
