Comments on: Reading Open-Source Code http://softwareas.com/reading-open-source-code Mahemoff's Podcast/Blog - Web, Programming, Usability from the Author of 'Ajax Design Patterns' (AjaxPatterns.org) Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:29:59 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: Tanton Gibbs http://softwareas.com/reading-open-source-code/comment-page-1#comment-2650 Tanton Gibbs Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:57:18 +0000 http://www.softwareas.com/reading-open-source-code#comment-2650 <p>From an XP perspective, I don't think that source code negates the need for documentation. Instead, it is the precise unit tests that ARE the documentation. You can look at the unit tests and see the expected input and output for each function/module/etc... This is, often, what you are looking for in documentation. The source code is most definitely NOT the documentation.</p> From an XP perspective, I don’t think that source code negates the need for documentation. Instead, it is the precise unit tests that ARE the documentation. You can look at the unit tests and see the expected input and output for each function/module/etc… This is, often, what you are looking for in documentation. The source code is most definitely NOT the documentation.

]]> By: Richard Rodger http://softwareas.com/reading-open-source-code/comment-page-1#comment-2636 Richard Rodger Fri, 09 Sep 2005 12:22:14 +0000 http://www.softwareas.com/reading-open-source-code#comment-2636 <p>I believe that access to source code provides life-saving documentation in the real world, when you are using a component that you did not write. This accounts for a lot of the success of open-source components, even when they are weaker than commercial ones. Many developers have war stories of fighting with buggy commerical components - to the extent of being forced to decompile the silly things! </p> <p>So components should not be used as black-boxes, and source code should always be offered as an option. No API can be that well documented!</p> I believe that access to source code provides life-saving documentation in the real world, when you are using a component that you did not write. This accounts for a lot of the success of open-source components, even when they are weaker than commercial ones. Many developers have war stories of fighting with buggy commerical components – to the extent of being forced to decompile the silly things!

So components should not be used as black-boxes, and source code should always be offered as an option. No API can be that well documented!

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