RE: Technical Writers Needed for API Doc: Really?

["Susan W. Gallagher" <SGallagher -at- akonix -dot- com>]

When I document APIs (I have well over ten years experience
documenting programming languages and did so full-time and 
exclusively for about eight years altogether), I always 
include a developer's guide. So, no, Victoria, your approach 
is not weird.

That said, however, most of the devs I've talked to consider
API docs to be reference. I believe this stems from a dearth
of reasonably good developer guides in the industry. Companies
who one-off their GUI base can get away with providing just
a ref for their API, companies who are in the business of
providing programmer tools wouldn't last a minute if they just
produced reference material for their products.

The attitude that docs for devs don't have to be good doesn't
do a whole lot to improve the genre; and as a group, devs have
had to make due with a lot of crappy docs from writers who 
either don't give a damn or don't know how to write a decent
developer doc. I'm always amazed at how appreciative the devs
can be when we spend a little time trying to get the dev guide
in shape.

-Sue Gallagher



> 
> At 11:47 PM 1/11/2002 -0800, Andrew Plato wrote:
> ><snip!>
> 
> >API guides are mostly raw information
> >intended for a very limited audience that is looking for specific
> >information. API guides don't need to be particularly 
> "friendly."  Its
> >just a matter of getting all the functions, classes, and whatever
> >documented.
> 
And Victoria Camgros answered:
> So, do most of the whirlers agree that API guides==reference material?
> 
> When I document an API, I typically develop both a reference 
> (classes, 
> methods, basic use) and a "programming guide". The latter 
> covers the API 
> from the POV of programmer's tasks or problems...
> 
> So, is my approach weird, or are you all just calling it 
> something else?
> 

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