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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[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

There are a lot of books describing algorithms. Most network protocols are described in RFCs as well as advices on their implementation. So you are looking in the wrong place. Source code documentation is usually enough to be understood by coders who are already familiar with common algorithms, protocols and APIs or know where to find their description. Only things that are very specific to the project can be described in details.