this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Algorithms instead of source code !! (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by erranto@lemmy.world to c/programming@programming.dev
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Disclaimer : I am a hobbyist programmer, I have not gone to Uni for that , so I might not know everything I am talking about.

My question is why don't open source programs include something like diagrams of the algorithms they employ ?? I Was looking for algorithms for a chat program with client-server architecture, I was hoping to find diagrams and descriptions of how algorithms work, so a to study them an adapt them to my needs. All I found were FOSS projects with no such documentation.

Considering that reading source code can take a long time, and sometimes interesting projects are written in a language the user isn't familiar with, I was wondering why such documentation style doesn't exist ? It could help even newer contributors get started quicker.

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[–] justJanne@startrek.website 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Considering that reading source code can take a long time

You'll get faster over time, until reading code is faster than reading documentation, as code will always represent what's truly happening, while docs are frequently outdated.

In a language the user isn't familiar with

If you're not that familiar with the language, it's likely you won't be contributing to the project. Open source projects usually to have quite limited resources, so they tend to optimize docs and dev UX for people who are likely to contribute.

[–] erranto@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you’re not that familiar with the language, it’s likely you won’t be contributing to the project.

You can still borrow and implement features developed by project x into project y , but I do understand the time limitation.

because I am more of a visual learner I wondered whether developers don't use diagrams and flow charts, or just don't include them in the docs.

[–] YIj54yALOJxEsY20eU@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Personally I will jot some loose notes down if I'm implementing something thats sufficiently difficult, but formalizing the design patterns/algorithms is very time consuming so I don't.