this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Programming

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The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation (AKA: Your project needs all 4 types or you have bad documentation) (documentation.divio.com)
submitted 1 year ago by spartanatreyu@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev
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The mistake most devs make when trying to document their project is that they only make one (maybe two) types of documentation based on a readme template and/or what their mental model of a newcomer needs.

Devs need to be actively taught that:

  1. Good documentation isn't one thing, it's four. To have good documentation, you need all four distinct types of documentation.
  2. What the four types of documentation are (this is discussed in the link)

If you don't have all four types of documentation, you have bad documentation.

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[โ€“] spartanatreyu@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The good thing about the JS ecosystem is that almost everything in the last few years is written in typescript.

Just by typing in the name of the function and opening the first parenthesis, you're getting type information right there.

For example, typing:

globalTestSetup(

Presents a modal showing:

globalTestSetup(options: { page: Page, slow?: boolean, locale?: string } );
[โ€“] torturedllama 2 points 1 year ago

Mm indeed. Types to the rescue.

Are there any projects/tools that turn the types into Java-style web html documentation? If you need to know something while you're working on a non-typescript project that could be more convenient.