That assumes that it would be reasonable to expect a beginner to understand the code base of any nontrivial application or system. I don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation, if only because there are countless requirements, assumptions, experiences made, priorities and design decision that have to be known to understand the code.
It’s also a question of economy. You can always try to make a code base easier to understand and to document anything and everything, but it comes at a cost. It doesn’t help if a code base is in principle understandable by a beginner if they have to spend months reading documentation first, and someone had to spend months if not years to write it.
It’s also a question of economy. You can always try to make a code base easier to understand and to document anything and everything, but it comes at a cost. It doesn’t help if a code base is in principle understandable by a beginner if they have to spend months reading documentation first, and someone had to spend months if not years to write it.