Thanks for that explanation - I hadn't fully looked at codeq and how it
works - I can see that it might make management of external documentation
an easier task; especially for a codebase that changes slowly.

- Korny


On 22 January 2013 18:39, Rich Morin <r...@cfcl.com> wrote:

> On Jan 21, 2013, at 23:15, Korny Sietsma wrote:
> > The flip side, of course, is that having documentation separate from
> > code often leads to the documentation becoming out of sync with thecode.
> >
> > What happens when someone renames or moves some code,  but doesn't also
> > move the docs?  What happens if they change the implementation?  Will
> > people remember that every code change might potentially also require a
> > change to documentation, stored somewhere else, and potentially
> versioned independently?
>
> [ Andy addressed this question, but I have my own spin on it, so... ]
>
> Keeping the docs with the code helps to handle this problem, because it
> makes it easier for a programmer to spot inconsistencies between the docs
> and the adjacent code.  However, we can't force the programmer to look at
> the docs, let alone keep them up to date.
>
> In any case, putting the docs in with the code causes the other problems
> we've discussed (eg, bulking up the code base, making changes difficult,
> getting in the way of helpful markup, internationalization issues).  So
> the real question is whether Codeq offers a way to keep the docs current.
>
> I believe that it does, in a very natural fashion.  Codeq tracks "code
> quanta" (ie, meaningful subsets of files such as classes, methods, and
> functions).  If Rich Hickey changes either the code or the comments in
> the foo function, Codeq will soon know about the changes.  It can then
> send an alert to anyone who is interested in making sure the external
> documentation for the function stays current.
>
> Given that Rich won't change any given function very often, this isn't
> likely to result in a large number of alerts, updates, etc.  I agree that
> this isn't a perfect solution, but I think it is probably quite workable.
>
> -r
>
>  --
> http://www.cfcl.com/rdm            Rich Morin
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-- 
Kornelis Sietsma  korny at my surname dot com http://korny.info
"We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit
playing" - O.W. Holmes

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