RE: API doc question

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Thanks all for the input about API docs. On the off chance anyone was interested, I once had to do API docs for Java packages, so it was object-oriented. I've forgotten just about everything I ever knew, since I never used that knowledge again.

That was the one thing I've done in a long time that I thought was worthy of some pride. The company wanted API docs and I'd never such work before, so I had to go out on the web and educate myself about them. I read bout the Sun Javadoc tool and I installed it and learned how to use it, then experimented with it for weeks until I was getting what I thought were good results. Then I had to automate it because otherwise using it took too much of my day. When I was finished, I had a system that would automatically run Javadoc and make weekly updates on a library of a dozen packages that contained more than 54,000 class files. The developers had to check in all their new code by 5 PM on Sunday. Every Monday before dawn a cron job would rename the previous API files to create archive copies, run up a new set of API docs under the original pathnames, update the web page that I made to provide links to all the available documents, and send out an email to all
 the engineers to notify them new API pages were done.

And then some woman asked me a short simple question about it and the only honest answer I could give her was, I couldn't remember anything. Sheesh.

Sorry to be so verbose. It was on my mind and I have nothing better to do than vent. Have a nice weekend.


      
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Use Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word, or HTML and 
produce desktop, Web, or print deliverables. Just write (or import) 
and Doc-To-Help does the rest. Free trial: http://www.doctohelp.com

Explore CAREER options and paths related to Technical Writing,
learn to create SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS documents, and
get tips on FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION best practices. Free at:
http://www.ModernAnalyst.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat