Ask HN: Is there a better way to document complex software architectures?
Quick question that I only ask because of my 30-odd year history as a corporate contractor...<p>Does anyone here really use those UML-based docs to actually learn the systems?  Or do they do what I always did and use the trusty step-debugger for a few days and come up with your own mental model of them?<p>Inevitably, unless someone is working full time on them, they are incomplete and several months out-of-date, and that makes them worthless really.<p>That's my anecdotal evidence against generating them. I'm at least somewhat sure someone has a conflicting story of how UML "saved the day", but it would be so rare to my experience that I would love to hear it.