Did an entire generation of Javascript programmers learn from viewing source?

In my last Javascript article I argued that Javascript has historically lacked good online resources for programmers who wanted more information, examples and design patterns for the language. Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror has written an insightful piece about the importance of being able to view source, and in particular credits Javascript’s rise in popularity to being able to view the source code (while right in the browser). While I have never really given much thought to this idea, he gives a convincing argument. It would certainly represent a powerful (if at times crude) alternative to comprehensive documentation and literature.

I would like to add some more to this line of thinking, however…