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The code which may be very readable to its creator is not always as
manageable and understandable to another programmer that wishes to
extend, improve or maintain it. Therefore, some more abstract views
of the system, along with some description in natural language can
save a lot of time and effort. The following are some basic suggestions:
- It needs to be assured that the code is well documented, preferably
with comments where appropriate.
- A functional and modular summary is necessary to give a system overview.
This can also prove to be useful if we want to re-use the code, let
us say, for some new chess application. Finding the appropriate functions
fairly trivial in this way.
- A diagram of the system structure would be highly appreciated by the
next person to familiarise himself/herself with the code structure.
It often proves to be crucial for the understanding of the interactions
within it.
- A report of how the system works as a whole, how to compile it, platform/OS
dependent code and debugging tools are a necessity. It is a very common
phenomenon for a programmer to find himself/herself lost with a piece
of code that is unreadable, unusable or lacks the compilation facilities.
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2004-05-19