• Presi300@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    6 months ago

    That documentation is supposed to explain how a thing works to people who don’t know how it works. I know, sounds extremely obvious, but you’d be surprised how much documentation out there is written in a way, expecting you to already know what it’s talking about. No. I do not. It is the documentation’s job to explain ME what IT is talking about…

    • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      51·
      6 months ago

      I agree with a caveat. If you are looking up documentation for an API or something software engineer adjacent, I think its fair for the authors of the documentation to assume the reader has a background in computer science, and shouldn’t have to explain topics that are explained in computer science curriculum. Same with other documentation that is intended to be used by specialists in their respective fields.

      • Technological_Elite@lemmy.oneOP
        2·
        6 months ago

        Couldn’t have explained it better myself. Everyday items? Yeah, should be documentation for a person’s first time using it.

        Explaining logarithms in mathematics? Gonna need previous algebra knowledge, that’s a given.

      • Presi300@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        I know, but a library or a piece of software should explain it’s own functions. I might know my way around the tech stack, but if you don’t explain what your library does, I have no way of knowing it…