code: def _read_file(self, filename):
          
          result = []
          with open(filename, 'r') as f:
              lines = f.read().split('\n')
              for line in lines:
                  nocomment = line.strip().split('#')[0].strip()
                  if nocomment:
                      result.append(nocomment)
          return result
docs: Return the lines from the given file, ignoring lines that start with
          comments