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Elucidative Programming
Kinds of understanding

There are many different ways to classify program understanding and program documentation. Here we present a classification of program understanding which focuses on the documentation needs before, during, and after the central development efforts.

System and program understanding can be classified in many different ways

We hypothesize that several kinds understanding can benefit from the ideas of elucidative programming

  • A classification of program-related descriptions and discussion

    • Proactive mental understanding

      • Design and architectural issues

      • Oriented towards the author or co-developers

    • Process understanding

      • Descriptions that keep the practical and everyday activities on track

      • Diaries and logs

    • Maintenance understanding

      • Conveying relevant information from the developers to maintainers

      • Best to write after the development is finished