3 ms·
I think the hardest part is that people don't know what others don't know. When you're so close to a project, things that are obvious to you are impossible to n
by tylerchilds 7y ago
I think the hardest part is that people don't know what others don't know. When you're so close to a project, things that are obvious to you are impossible to new people, but you don't realize how impossible it is until you get that feedback.
- overcast 7y agoJust start with the assumption that no one understands how to read a man page and how to translate that into a full command line operation. A simple example goes A LONG WAY.
- Darkphibre 7y agoBack in 2000-2005 I worked on the SQL Server documentation. If I remember correctly, when we instrumented the docs we found that the VAST majority of users skipped over all the descriptions and parameter definitions, and jumped straight to the examples of usage. Turns out observation is the fastest way to learn/remember. We redoubled our efforts to include examples of more obscure usage patterns, rather than relying on wordy explanations.
- overcast 7y agoThat's EXACTLY what I do. I imagine there are some that are great at reading white papers, but I am not one of them, and I'm not alone. Experience > Education.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Polylactic_acid 7y agoYou don't need to know what other people don't know. Just provide a copy/paste of the most common use cases and a line explaining what they do.