
Ask HN: Tool to create visual flowcharts/documentation from code comments - blizkreeg
Nearly all tools product and eng teams use today are web-based. Documentation lives outside of the context where it&#x27;s implemented, i.e., code.<p>Say a new feature is being developed and the team draws up a flowchart of user or data flow. This will most likely be done in a tool like Confluence, Google Docs, Whimsical etc. However, it will probably get outdated pretty quickly as the team starts writing code (things change). The context also lives completely outside and divorced from the source of truth in code. I&#x27;ve worked in a number of teams over the years where the technical specs are horribly outdated and there&#x27;s almost no point reading them to get an understanding of how something works.<p>I&#x27;ve been thinking of building a tool that enables developers to create documentation that is accessible to everyone, but from within code. The main problem it solves is linking documentation to actual implementation details. This is often very useful when debugging something or when on-boarding new developers. But more importantly, it would mean fewer docs are out of date. They&#x27;re front and center in a place where engineers spend a large portion of their day.<p>Would this be of value to you? Does it already exist?
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mimixco
This would absolutely be of value. I was wishing for something like it just
the other day. IDE's aren't the place to keep doc and there is no good tool
which, as you said, ties the doc to the actual code it represents.

I would absolutely pay for a tool like that.

