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Ask HN: What's the best documentation you've ever read?

70 pointsby selmatalmost 7 years ago

42 comments

manugarrialmost 7 years ago
It has to be the scikit-learn documentation (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;scikit-learn.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;scikit-learn.org&#x2F;</a>). Not only its great in terms of proper code documentations with a ton of examples, but it also explains the theory behind each algorithm. You can literally learn Machine Learning just by reading the docs
devxpyalmost 7 years ago
Any discussion on documentation is incomplete without mentioning Django<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.djangoproject.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;2.0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.djangoproject.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;2.0&#x2F;</a>
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mabynogyalmost 7 years ago
MDN because it&#x27;s exhaustive <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;</a><p>Jekyll because it&#x27;s beautiful and the user can read all the pages at once with the previous&#x2F;next buttons (at the bottom) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jekyllrb.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;home&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jekyllrb.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;home&#x2F;</a><p>Node.js because they propose a single page version and it makes search easier <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nodejs.org&#x2F;dist&#x2F;latest-v10.x&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;all.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nodejs.org&#x2F;dist&#x2F;latest-v10.x&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;all.html</a>
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altschuleralmost 7 years ago
I learned a lot from the SQLite documentation. It&#x27;s not only very thorough, but it&#x27;s full of insightful bits of information that is not strictly necessary but which gives a deeper understanding of the engine.<p>It was also the first time I encountered the flow diagram type of syntax explanation which I found to be a fantastic way to grasp the details of each command. Eg <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sqlite.org&#x2F;lang_createtable.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sqlite.org&#x2F;lang_createtable.html</a>.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sqlite.org&#x2F;docs.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sqlite.org&#x2F;docs.html</a>
crooalmost 7 years ago
ZeroMQ stands out for me. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;zguide.zeromq.org&#x2F;page:all" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;zguide.zeromq.org&#x2F;page:all</a>
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throwmeaway1532almost 7 years ago
The best docs on the planet are now held by Mozilla on Javascript.
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deadcoder0904almost 7 years ago
Vue JS docs are the best. I don&#x27;t think anything beats it :)
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celloveralmost 7 years ago
PostgreSQL&#x27;s documentation to me is a reference.<p>Complex concepts are told in a very simple and concise fashion. There is just the right amount of text for what is told, it does not make you feel dumb and instead invites you to dig deeper in a very welcoming manner.
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federicodalmasoalmost 7 years ago
CockroachDB: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cockroachlabs.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;stable&#x2F;architecture&#x2F;overview.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cockroachlabs.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;stable&#x2F;architecture&#x2F;overv...</a>
minikomialmost 7 years ago
Re-frame for clojurescript. Worth reading even if you&#x27;re not using cljs but are involved in front-end development.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Day8&#x2F;re-frame&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;docs&#x2F;README.md" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Day8&#x2F;re-frame&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;docs&#x2F;README.md</a>
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mjw1007almost 7 years ago
The TeXbook, and the Exim spec.<p>The thing the latter gets right is that, as well as the usual long list of options with an explanation of what their effects are, it also describes in full detail what the program actually does, rather than leaving you to deduce it from the options.<p>So each option is normally described twice: once in an alphabetical list, and once where the operation it affects is described.
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jolmgalmost 7 years ago
vim, emacs, postgres, zsh, bash, urxvt, systemd, pacman<p>EDIT: It all depends on how you set the bar, though. There are plenty of projects whose entire documentation is a README with a few examples.<p>Also, what&#x27;s &quot;best&quot;, documentation that greatly explains a horrible, unintuitive interface of a program or one that hardly needs to exist because the use of the program is so intuitive, you don&#x27;t need documentation? Greater effort was spent in the former, but you understand the program better in the latter.
snickyalmost 7 years ago
I love <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;redis.io&#x2F;documentation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;redis.io&#x2F;documentation</a>. It has a great UI too.
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incadenzaalmost 7 years ago
Redux is good given how small the library is. Rust stands out as well
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stevesimmonsalmost 7 years ago
Django, the Python-based web framework, has fantastic docs too: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.djangoproject.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.djangoproject.com</a>
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rmrfrmrfalmost 7 years ago
<i>The C Programming Language</i>
programmarchyalmost 7 years ago
The node-postgres docs are very nice. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;node-postgres.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;node-postgres.com&#x2F;</a><p>Gives you examples right off the bat to get started, is organized well so it&#x27;s easy to dive deeper, and the author includes some conventions for incorporating the module into your app.
leni536almost 7 years ago
I think cppreference.com is very well made. It has both the C++ and C standards in a very accessible form.
HappyFapMachinealmost 7 years ago
QT wasn&#x27;t so bad as far as I remember.<p>But as jolmg pointed out, some projects are just simple readme and that is more than enough. Love those. But the total opposite is also common, a wall of text that is meaningless and in the end, you have to go through the source code to get some answers...
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wizawualmost 7 years ago
Erlang - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.erlang.org&#x2F;docs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.erlang.org&#x2F;docs</a><p>The best three entries are * Learn - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;reference_manual&#x2F;users_guide.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;reference_manual&#x2F;users_guide.html</a> * Use - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;search&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;search&#x2F;</a> * Go deep - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;efficiency_guide&#x2F;users_guide.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;erlang.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;efficiency_guide&#x2F;users_guide.html</a>
neddeadstarkalmost 7 years ago
I would go with python-requests <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.python-requests.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;master&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.python-requests.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;master&#x2F;</a>
actionowlalmost 7 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.saltstack.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;latest&#x2F;topics&#x2F;development&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.saltstack.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;latest&#x2F;topics&#x2F;development&#x2F;inde...</a><p>I found some bugs and I wanted to fix them. I&#x27;ve done a little python in the past but I&#x27;m not entirely up to speed on the whole python ecosystem. This documentation was exceptional and allowed me to get my bugs fixed, some unit tests written and PR&#x27;s merged.
sbergjohansenalmost 7 years ago
I&#x27;ve always admired Agilent&#x27;s Programmer&#x27;s Reference for the ESA series electronic spectrum analyzers <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;literature.cdn.keysight.com&#x2F;litweb&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;E4401-90507.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;literature.cdn.keysight.com&#x2F;litweb&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;E4401-90507.pd...</a>
haolezalmost 7 years ago
Racket<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.racket-lang.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.racket-lang.org&#x2F;</a>
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amarantalmost 7 years ago
I really like the elasticsearch docs. They seem to cover everything, it&#x27;s easy to find what you&#x27;re looking for, and they contain a lot of detail! the feature where you can switch ES version without leaving the page you&#x27;re on is a nice touch too :)
beizhiaalmost 7 years ago
It&#x27;s gotta be emacs for me. C-h o, and helm-apropos make it super easy to investigate anything in the system. And the help pages link back to the source code (though this isn&#x27;t unique to emacs) The online docs aren&#x27;t bad either.
yantramsalmost 7 years ago
MDN, Scikit-learn, Requests, RethinkDB, Django are a few that come to my mind.
random42_almost 7 years ago
Probably the Gentoo Linux documentation. Not sure how it looks like today, but back in 2005 when I started using Gentoo it helped me a lot because not only was comprehensive but also deep enough albeit clear.
salukialmost 7 years ago
Best docs:<p>Stripe.com<p>Laravel.com
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tephraalmost 7 years ago
I really like the Org mode manual (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;orgmode.org&#x2F;manual&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;orgmode.org&#x2F;manual&#x2F;</a>)
rkachowskialmost 7 years ago
nobody know shoes by _why<p>I would say it&#x27;s pretty terrible at providing a reference for a new GUI system in ruby, but it&#x27;s also the most fun I&#x27;ve had reading docs
klausjensenalmost 7 years ago
Stripe has the best API documentation, I have seen.
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kaycebasquesalmost 7 years ago
Tech writer here. I&#x27;d be hugely thankful if you included <i>why</i> a given set is the best in your experience!
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nortieroalmost 7 years ago
The Commodore 64 User Manual. No contest.
jackgoldingalmost 7 years ago
I like plot.ly&#x27;s documentation - has a good mix of top level examples and specific, deep documentation.
tcpekinalmost 7 years ago
I use Matlab over Python for scientific computing mainly because the documentation makes everything easier.
billconanalmost 7 years ago
Qt&#x27;s <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;doc.qt.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;doc.qt.io&#x2F;</a>
rajangdavisalmost 7 years ago
IMHO Twilio&#x27;s documentation is pretty nice
boboshaalmost 7 years ago
stripe - hast the best api docs imho
akskosalmost 7 years ago
Go
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Walkmanalmost 7 years ago
PostgreSQL&#x27;s is very concise, clear, to the point, but still very detailed. Has examples! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postgresql.org&#x2F;docs&#x2F;10&#x2F;static&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.postgresql.org&#x2F;docs&#x2F;10&#x2F;static&#x2F;index.html</a>
Theodoresalmost 7 years ago
Stack Overflow.