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Not sure how is this related to the SW development, this is just a general set of Google keywords. I might sound like an old fart, but I feel like it is much mo

by empiko 5y ago

Not sure how is this related to the SW development, this is just a general set of Google keywords. I might sound like an old fart, but I feel like it is much more helpful to learn your way around the docs as a developer. I regularly see people googling all kinds of basic language knowledge that can be found in documentation. However, googling might lead to outdated or incorrect information, especially when people just copy the first result from Stack Overflow. My advice for the junior Python programmers is to learn using the `help` keyword and python console to quickly check how things work.

laurent123456 5y ago
The problem is that each documentation has its own search function, more or less efficient, each with its own quirks. Search engines are much better at finding information and they provide a consistent UI. You can search "php array sort", or "python array sort" and you'll get a link to the relevant page of the documentation. In comparison if I search for "array sort" in the Python doc directly, the first result is about "bisect" (vaguely related but too specific) and the second about "ctypes" (unrelated), the third is "Programming FAQ" (unrelated). Not one result is the generic "Sorting HOW TO" page, which Google links to first, and which is the most useful when you want to learn about sorting in Python.
- upbeat_general 5y ago
  This 100%
sumtechguy 5y ago
That depends on the framework and docs. I just finished a project where the docs are actually decent. But for a particular feature it was smeared across 40 different pages in random snippets. It was not like this was some obscure feature either it was one advertised to work 'out of the box'.
shadowgovt 5y ago
This works until you find yourself developing in an environment that moves so quickly that any given archive of docs you have is out of date within a week. Excellent advice for languages, but might trip a developer up who's working with libraries (especially web development libraries, which release quickly).
8note 5y ago
I find documentation tends to not tell you about alternative ways to do something similar. You can't find the right way to do something until you've read most of the docs, vs finding the way people do it by examples is quick. I don't need to learn how to write a novel to order lunch in a new labguage

by empiko 5y ago

laurent123456 5y ago

The problem is that each documentation has its own search function, more or less efficient, each with its own quirks. Search engines are much better at finding information and they provide a consistent UI. You can search "php array sort", or "python array sort" and you'll get a link to the relevant page of the documentation. In comparison if I search for "array sort" in the Python doc directly, the first result is about "bisect" (vaguely related but too specific) and the second about "ctypes" (unrelated), the third is "Programming FAQ" (unrelated). Not one result is the generic "Sorting HOW TO" page, which Google links to first, and which is the most useful when you want to learn about sorting in Python.

upbeat_general 5y ago
This 100%

sumtechguy 5y ago

That depends on the framework and docs. I just finished a project where the docs are actually decent. But for a particular feature it was smeared across 40 different pages in random snippets. It was not like this was some obscure feature either it was one advertised to work 'out of the box'.

shadowgovt 5y ago

This works until you find yourself developing in an environment that moves so quickly that any given archive of docs you have is out of date within a week. Excellent advice for languages, but might trip a developer up who's working with libraries (especially web development libraries, which release quickly).

8note 5y ago

I find documentation tends to not tell you about alternative ways to do something similar. You can't find the right way to do something until you've read most of the docs, vs finding the way people do it by examples is quick. I don't need to learn how to write a novel to order lunch in a new labguage