63
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
63 points (94.4% liked)
Programming
16197 readers
462 users here now
Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!
Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.
Hope you enjoy the instance!
Rules
Rules
- Follow the programming.dev instance rules
- Keep content related to programming in some way
- If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos
Wormhole
Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
When someone writes API docs, should they assume the reader knows nothing or can they assume the is already experienced?
It takes a lot of effort to write documentation towards newbies, at the cost of making it more difficult for already experienced to find the answer they need.
Docs should be written for someone experienced in programming but inexperienced with the API. If it is about a niche subject (for example VR).
Whenever an explanation contains something about that niche subject, you don't need to explain everything, but maybe provide a link towards another place (for example wikipedia) that explains it.
Usually API docs are tucked away inside a "developer dashboard" or whatever they decided to call it. So I think you can assume at least moderate API and web development knowlege and programming skills.
Write multiple versions of docs for different audiences
No way they will ever be in sync.
Which doubles the maintenance work to keep docs in sync