Informal Documentation vs Postconditions

Developers should use informal documentation to facilitate team collaboration, onboard new members, and document ad-hoc decisions or code rationale that don't fit into formal specs meets developers should learn and use postconditions when building robust, verifiable software, especially in safety-critical systems, formal verification, or contract-based programming. Here's our take.

Informal Documentation

Nice Pick

Developers should use informal documentation to facilitate team collaboration, onboard new members, and document ad-hoc decisions or code rationale that don't fit into formal specs

Pros

• It's particularly valuable in agile environments, open-source projects, or when rapid iteration makes formal documentation impractical, as it reduces knowledge silos and improves code maintainability
• Related to: documentation-writing, code-comments

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Postconditions

Developers should learn and use postconditions when building robust, verifiable software, especially in safety-critical systems, formal verification, or contract-based programming

Pros

• They are crucial in languages like Eiffel or frameworks that support design-by-contract, as they enable automated testing, reduce bugs by clarifying expectations, and improve documentation
• Related to: design-by-contract, preconditions

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Informal Documentation is a methodology while Postconditions is a concept. We picked Informal Documentation based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Informal Documentation wins

Based on overall popularity. Informal Documentation is more widely used, but Postconditions excels in its own space.