Software documentation is written text that accompanies computer software. It either explains how it operates or how to use it, and may mean different things to people in different roles.
2
votes
5answers
153 views
How viable is to create a mini documentation inside the source code
So, I work as a developer. We are a small team. The majority of the people (everyone except the project manager and the senior developer) are still in university. We have very flexible work hours, ...
3
votes
2answers
176 views
Is it customary for software companies to forbid code authors from taking credit for their work? do code authors have a say?
The company I work for has decided that the source code for a set of tools they make available to customers is also going to be made available to those customers.
Since I am the author of that source ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
Your thoughts on Best Practices for Scientific Computing? [closed]
A recent paper by Wilson et al (2014) pointed out 24 Best Practices for scientific programming. It's worth to have a look. I would like to hear opinions about these points from experienced programmers ...
1
vote
1answer
32 views
What does backup procedures and troubleshooting guidelines mean for a system
I am writing the documentation for a piece of software which I have made but I don't understand what it means in some aspects.
It asks me to write about backup procedures but what exactly does this ...
-1
votes
1answer
38 views
Where can I find better designed nginx documentation? [closed]
Actually I have a sub-question here:"Is Nginx official documentation opensourced?"
Nginx is a good software, but I found its official documentation(http://nginx.org/en/docs/ really hard to read, ...
0
votes
0answers
15 views
Scala/SBT - Documenting Configuration Change for Releases
I'm trying to collect different ways of managing configuration across multiple environments.
I have a requirement to document configuration changes for the deployment plan.
Dev values are defaults in ...
-1
votes
1answer
82 views
What's the verb for “currying”? [closed]
As per Wikipedia, partial application is a process (noun) that fixes a number of arguments to a function, and currying is a technique (noun) that transforms multi-arg functions in a way that it ...
0
votes
3answers
131 views
What goes within the Architecture Overview of a Design Specification?
I have designed an management system for a medical practice and I am writing the design specification and I am kind of stumped by what to write for a section.
It asks for me to write about the ...
1
vote
1answer
141 views
As an lone, Agile (PXP/PSP) developer what is the proper structure for a formal project post-mortem? [closed]
Question:
As an lone, Agile (PXP/PSP) developer what is the proper structure for a formal project post-mortem?
Scenario
I'm using a PXP methodology (which is a blend of extreme programming and the ...
3
votes
2answers
92 views
How to document a file format specification [closed]
For a project, I need to work with varying types of files from some old games and related software--configuration files, saves, resource archives, and so on. The bulk of these aren't yet documented, ...
0
votes
3answers
163 views
Has there been any formal proof that documentation in general is incomplete and obsolete to a certain grade? [closed]
I'm a web developer and I'm currently once again in a situation where a partly clueless ops department requires a "complete" documentation required for technical support of our application by a ...
1
vote
2answers
72 views
How to write descriptive conditionals for ifs?
I've gotten into the habit of using excessively descriptive names. In addition, I've also gotten into the habit of creating the conditions for ifs like so:
bool user_is_female = user.get_gender() ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
How to document the high-level structure of a Java program?
Background:
My collaborators and I are writing an article for an academic journal.
In the course of our research,
we wrote a simulation program in Java.
We want to make the simulation program freely ...
0
votes
2answers
122 views
How should I document a multi-tier application?
I have to create a documentation structure for a legacy application, and I'm not sure of how to organize it.
Documentation goals:
List of use-Cases
Program flow for each of the use cases. ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
How would you collect the ideas that needs to be discussed during time [duplicate]
What is the best way of collecting and/or keep tracking of ideas/issues that needs to be discussed in details and during the time?
As an example, imagine within the team you're brainstorming about ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
Documentation required for commissioned software (product) [closed]
The company I work for has commissioned a software company to produce a compliance software for several big companies. As part of our contract it is required of them to provide us with src code and ...
5
votes
4answers
143 views
Keeping documentation / manuals up-to-date in a rapidly changing project
Background
I work on a relatively large project (~570 KLOC) in a relatively small team (formerly 5 developers, now 2). Large amounts of code can appear and then vanish in months; for example, a few ...
1
vote
2answers
112 views
How to document self explanatory setter functions? [duplicate]
Often boolean setters are pretty self-explanatory, like setLogErrors($bool). I do see some benefit of providing some additional information in the documentation, in this instance maybe where these ...
0
votes
2answers
56 views
Frameworks/methodologies for documenting functional/use case scenarios and mapping them to code base [closed]
Is there an established framework or methodology for documenting functional or use cases and mapping them to units of code?
E.g. assume you are a new developer hire assigned to work on an ...
0
votes
2answers
46 views
Multiple documentation issues in a single bug
It is clearly a bad practice to incorporate several issues in a single bug. It is not convenient, hard to maintain, difficult to keep track of what is done and what is not, etc.
But does all this ...
-2
votes
1answer
128 views
Best practices in Application's flow diagram [closed]
I make web applications, mostly MVC, object oriented and database enabled. I always have trouble going back to project after a few months of release and work again. I don't even remember what I made ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
Am I allowed to use text(snippets) from the iOS Developer Lib for my documentation?
At the moment, I create a Java-Wrapper for Apples *.pkpass-Files (Passbook).
Since I need to parse a JSon-File, I planned to add java doc to every field, so one know what exactly this field is in the ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
How to organize software document for the same application supporing both iOS and Android
I have to write software project documentation for an application which will support both iOS and Android. Each platform has its specific features and the mobile app design and requirements are almost ...
2
votes
1answer
102 views
Outline for technical software documentation
Say I have a software project for which the technical documentation should include
A license document
A list of used terminology
An introduction about what the software does
A short quick-start ...
1
vote
1answer
113 views
Use of # in answers/documentation when referring to methods of a class
When looking through Java documentation or answers for Stack Overflow / programming forum questions, I often see people referring to methods like String#format, Object#clone etc, rather than ...
1
vote
2answers
145 views
Documenting/defining data structures in Python
What is the preferred way to document the contents of and logic behind dynamically generated data structures in Python? E.g. a dict which contains the mapping of a string to a list of lists of ...
1
vote
3answers
116 views
How to consider the login function collecting requirements of an application? is it a user requirement?
I am working on an application that expected to the user logs in when the application is started (as for example it is in Skype: the user open the application and appear to him a login mask when he ...
3
votes
3answers
428 views
Is it Typical for Large Software Companies to Not Document or Refactor Code? [closed]
I have begun working at a large software company and was assigned to a project that is over a million and a half lines of code. It's part of a program suite that is sold to clients (not an in-house ...
6
votes
4answers
427 views
How to categorise information in end-user documentation?
One of the greatest piece of documentation I ever read is the TeXbook by Donald Knuth—the manual of the TeX typesetting system, and I used it in my first analysis.
As far as I can tell, the type of ...
4
votes
3answers
124 views
Would adding an @beta doc-comment tag be useful?
When a function has reached the end of its life, we add a @deprecated tag into its doc-comment to notify other developers that they should stop using this function, and then a couple years later it's ...
1
vote
2answers
261 views
When to write software project documentation on code [duplicate]
I usually write my software projects in java, and I am still a bit confused as to when to document my classes, interfaces and methods.
There are two ways:
1) Write documentation after declaring or ...
1
vote
2answers
141 views
Tender vs. Requirements vs. Solution Design
Conventionally, which of the above documents is deemed to hold the most weight when it comes to system acceptance?
I recently had a conversation along these lines:
It was argued that the initial ...
1
vote
1answer
86 views
Is there a tool to generate multi-goal procedural instructions? [closed]
As a user: When I have good instructions to follow I'm sure I could do just about anything. With poor instructions I end up frustrated, wasting time and probably giving up.
The type of instruction I ...
2
votes
3answers
312 views
How to explain to non-programmer to build my Visual Studio source code in “Release” mode?
I'm writing documentation for some software that I wrote. Specifically, I'm writing a guide to installing the software. I'm delivering the source-code to my client, so I expect that they will want ...
0
votes
1answer
113 views
How do I include Implementation and Usage Documentation in one file
There are two types of documentation.
One type, the Implementation Documentation, contains information about specific implementation of a construct (eg. Class, Method, etc.). It is targeted to the ...
19
votes
6answers
2k views
Old programmer disappeared. About to hire another programmer. How do I approach this? [closed]
After spending over one year working on a social network project for me using WordPress and BuddyPress, my programmer has disappeared, even though he got paid every single week, for the whole period. ...
-2
votes
1answer
166 views
PDF to doxygen - how to do it? [closed]
I have a big pdf with the documentation for a project and I need to render this to doxygen (so take each function from the pdf and write it out into doxygen).
Any suggestions on how to do this ...
7
votes
1answer
357 views
Creating an effective C++ library website and documentation
Creating a C++ library also means documenting it so that others can use it, and that documentation can vary dramatically in quality.
How should a website for a C++ library be structured so that it ...
3
votes
1answer
106 views
Marking specific pieces of drastically changed open source code
I have taken a small chunk of open-source code, around a hundred lines, and found that for whatever reason, I have modified it so drastically that my end result has essentially no resemblance to the ...
5
votes
1answer
305 views
Which concepts are pertinent to plan a “end-user documentation” strategy?
I am writing a lot of software and I feel that writing good documentation is very difficult. Since I am not aware of any structured theory about software documentation I started to organise my ...
-1
votes
1answer
104 views
Is there any standard for design document [closed]
This question is purely from academic point of view. As part of the software engineering lab, a design document is to be created after generating the SRS. Is there any standard for creating the design ...
1
vote
3answers
222 views
How do you decide how much business requirements documentation you need and how to structure it? [closed]
In the past couple of years, I've worked on two projects.
The first one, we used a very agile methodology. It was very much developer driven. As such, changes were very quick and rapid. Code quality ...
6
votes
5answers
407 views
Maintaining good form while learning new technologies
I find that I have to learn new technologies fairly regularly as a contractor in order to keep competitive.
However, I also find that (not only, but especially) in these circumstances, I tend to end ...
5
votes
5answers
252 views
Hyperlinked, externalized source code documentation
Why do we still embed natural language descriptions of source code (i.e., the reason why a line of code was written) within the source code, rather than as a separate document?
Given the expansive ...
0
votes
2answers
260 views
How to write comments to explain the “why” behind the callback function when the function and parameter names are insufficient for that?
How should I approach writing comments for callback functions? I want to explain the "why" behind the function when the function and parameter names are insufficient to explain what's going on.
I ...
5
votes
4answers
609 views
Should user documentation include screenshots? [duplicate]
This question focuses on user documentation, not on code documentation.
I just finished my software project, and the people I work for are expecting me to write user documentation, describing ...
2
votes
2answers
238 views
Design document for project in C
I have had some experience in documenting the design for project developed in OOP languages. I made classes and used class diagrams to showcase the overall design structure of the implementation when ...
2
votes
1answer
244 views
How to find classes that use certain DB tables
Problem:
I'm asked to prepare a document where all our DB tables are listed and I'm supposed to list all Controllers that uses these DB tables for read and another list for Controllers that do write ...
3
votes
2answers
182 views
How do you validate need for documentation?
I once was on a project where a non-tech manager had the team spending half of every hour documenting what they just did so that someone with zero understanding of the tech would be able to understand ...
-1
votes
1answer
68 views
What are the most crucial categories of content to organize into an internal developer portal in a large company? [closed]
I have been tasked with organizing all of the company's internal content currently spread around sharepoint, a markdown reference manual and confluence into a single cohesive and usable portal in ...
