Which are your favorite developer docs?

Question

I'm currently working on documenting a product for developers, I'm used to read lots of public dev docs, but it's my first time writing them.I'd like to get some inspiration, could be favorite developer docs, but also resources on how to make them great.Examples:Stripe (https://stripe.com/docs): probably the canonical example for dev docs, well written, well structured, sweet spot between code examples and explanatory text (e.g. https://stripe.com/docs/billing/quickstart).Tailscale (https://tailscale.com/kb/): well written, well structured, lots of how-to guides.Docusaurus showcase (https://docusaurus.io/showcase): aggregation of docs, some of them are great, some are not. All of them are open source so it's a useful resource for inspiration.Also, not a doc itself but a great tool to build docs: https://codehike.org/

kosasbest · Accepted Answer

Invaluable:https://devdocs.io/https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

Thursday24 · Answer

In my experience, Django docs are on a totally different level:https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/

quantumwoke · Answer

Is it just me or are the Stripe docs not the paragon of usefulness they once were? Still head and shoulders above many but last time I started a new project I found duplicated, outdated, confusing docs all over the place. Managing the complex payments state machine seems to get harder and harder as Stripe matures.

mariaalonso2705 · Answer

Northflank: https://northflank.com/docs/ Always up-to-date, well interlinked pages, well structured.Northflank API docs: https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/introduction Very hands-on and easy to search.

pull_my_finger · Answer

The Lua language documentation[1] covers the entire API with examples and signatures, the language grammar and the changes from the previous version including specific incompatibilities where applicable, all in a single page. It's all very easy to read and understand.[1]: https://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/manual.html

jpgvm · Answer

PostgreSQL is the gold standard for usage level docs.The Linux kernel however is by far my favourite because of the in-depth design documents in-tree in easy to read plain-text format.

Maultasche · Answer

I really like the Elixir programming language documentation: https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Kernel.html
It's easy to find things, clearly written, and usually answer any questions I have about how to use a particular standard library function.
I really appreciate the code samples, which are present all over the documentation.

iaabtpbtpnn · Answer

Postgres docs are really good.

amyjackson01 · Answer

I read codersgeek blog for daily software industry updates.https://www.reliablegroup.com/services/cpa-firms/

dehugger · Answer

I love the flask documentation personally. I've always found it well laid out, with relevant examples for my use cases. Also EVE has the best video game rest api and documentation I've ever used.

siproprio · Answer

Matlab:https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fft.html

alexdowad · Answer

MDN for the JavaScript language and standard browser APIs.

dontbenebby · Answer

Do man pages count? (I'm not trolling... I often pull them up on the web rather than in terminal but they're incredibly useful.)

rohitag13 · Answer

FastAPI docs are quite comprehensive.https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/

Which are your favorite developer docs?

Invaluable:
https://devdocs.io/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

In my experience, Django docs are on a totally different level:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.0/

Northflank: https://northflank.com/docs/ Always up-to-date, well interlinked pages, well structured.
Northflank API docs: https://northflank.com/docs/v1/api/introduction Very hands-on and easy to search.

PostgreSQL is the gold standard for usage level docs.
The Linux kernel however is by far my favourite because of the in-depth design documents in-tree in easy to read plain-text format.

Postgres docs are really good.

I read codersgeek blog for daily software industry updates.
https://www.reliablegroup.com/services/cpa-firms/

I love the flask documentation personally. I've always found it well laid out, with relevant examples for my use cases. Also EVE has the best video game rest api and documentation I've ever used.

Matlab:
https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fft.html

MDN for the JavaScript language and standard browser APIs.

Do man pages count? (I'm not trolling... I often pull them up on the web rather than in terminal but they're incredibly useful.)

FastAPI docs are quite comprehensive.
https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/