Documentation

Abstract

When my parents refurbished the wooden panels on the house in the 1980s, my mother deposited a newspaper in between the wall and the new panels. When I wondered what my mom was doing, she explained: “This is our message into the future. Whoever will be the next to replace the panels, will find the newspaper and see how we saw the world today.” Someone else, maybe a few decades later, would catch a glimpse of our life when the paneling was built (for instance that newspapers were considered to give testimony of history). Looking into the past is difficult. Of course, it is easier than looking into the future. There is some information: we can see the old, wooden panels, in their probably withered state. We can see what has been built, but not what our state of mind was, our hopes, our reasons, our intentions. Documenting software is similar.