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Discussion on: Fixing your Documentation Problem

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johnmccuk profile image
John McCracken

Couldn't agree more, the risk of refactored code linked to legacy comments is too high.

Always believed a summary doc block along with well named variables/method names should provide enough guidance for very little additional effort.

Although coming up with well named variables is another challenge in itself.

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nebojsac profile image
Nick Cinger • Edited

Doc blocks are mandatory, imho, but also a separate topic. The problem is that a lot of developers use the existence of docblocks and code comments as an excuse to not have to do non-code documentation.

I argue, in the post, that non-code documentation is also important, because it fills a different role than in-code documentation. Ideally you would have both!

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mortoray profile image
edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

I'm quite undecided. On most projects that had architecture docs, I was the person to write them. I never referred to them again, nor did anybody else.

I can see them being helpful should I disappear from a project, but I'm not convinced they are essential. They also take time, which is time not spent doing something else.

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nebojsac profile image
Nick Cinger

That's fair, I'd say it depends somewhat on the project. But also, fixing the knowledge silo is, long term, a thing worth doing for the project. That's an extra point I could add to the subject, thanks for that :)

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nestedsoftware profile image
Nested Software

I was the person to write them

Found the problem! Hehe ;)