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Docs for Developers: An Engineer’s Field Guide to Technical Writing

184 pointsby jabajabaduover 3 years ago

9 comments

infogulchover 3 years ago
I like linking to this site [0], the &quot;The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation&quot; that describes four categories of documentation that fill out a 2D space of potential docs value: the practical steps &lt;-&gt; theoretical knowledge dimension, and the useful when studying &lt;-&gt; useful when working dimension.<p><pre><code> * Tutorials - Learning-oriented - (practical&#x2F;studying) * How To Guides - Problem-oriented - (practical&#x2F;working) * Explanations - Understanding-oriented - (theoretical&#x2F;studying) * Reference - Information-oriented - (theoretical&#x2F;working) </code></pre> It passed through HN ~9 months ago [1], where kaycebasques stated, &quot;I think the key breakthrough with Divio&#x27;s framework is getting authors to think about docs in terms of desired goals and outcomes: learning-oriented, problem-oriented, etc.&quot;<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;documentation.divio.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;documentation.divio.com</a><p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=26002656" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=26002656</a>
teerayover 3 years ago
I do think clear writing is an indication of clear thinking, which leads to clear programming. However, technical writing is a real job with real work involved. To make developers write all the documentation is the same management mentality some places have about hiring “full-stack engineers.” The places I’ve worked at with truly excellent documentation had full-time technical writers that collaborated with engineers.
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CameronBangaover 3 years ago
Not sure if this is specific to this book, or Apress in general, but it seems absurd that the eBook sells for $29.99, but you can also buy each chapter individually for $29.95?<p>The $29.99 is more than reasonable as a price for the book. But who would be looking to spend the same price and receive only a chapter? Seems almost like some sort of trick to hopefully get a customer to unintentionally buy only a single chapter.
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mactournierover 3 years ago
You can read it with your ACM&#x2F;O&#x27;Reilly subscription =&gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oreilly.com&#x2F;library&#x2F;view&#x2F;docs-for-developers&#x2F;9781484272176&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oreilly.com&#x2F;library&#x2F;view&#x2F;docs-for-developers&#x2F;978...</a>
cratermoonover 3 years ago
I saw this book mentioned on twitter, the author(s) were hyping it. I&#x27;d love to buy the ebook but I don&#x27;t want to have to register or accept any TOS, I just want to give money and download the epub format. Everywhere I&#x27;ve looked requires creating an account. I see it&#x27;s available on Amazon but... well, I don&#x27;t want Kindle format and also would prefer almost any other seller.
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hanswesterbeekover 3 years ago
Writing well is underrated. Too many people think they do it well. Kind of like Dutch people and their command of the English language.
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porkerover 3 years ago
Lots of talk about documentation in this thread but returning to the book: has anyone read it or seen an independent review yet? I&#x27;ve seen the authors hyping its release; now I want to know if it&#x27;s any good :)
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mrwnmonmover 3 years ago
Not very much off-topic, I wish someone makes <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docusaurus.io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docusaurus.io</a> as a service.
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wdbover 3 years ago
Question, which online documentation do you consider great? I quite like the Stripe documentation and wished they open-sourced it. Any others?