this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Programming

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Algorithms instead of source code !! (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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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[–] vhstape@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 7 months ago

I am in the habit of writing verbose comments in my source code, which includes attributing the algorithms used and where I found information thereon. Unfortunately, this is not common practice... Be the change you want to see!