I love Django’s documentation. It clocks in at about 700 pages printed, and most of it is clear, concise, and helpful. I think Django’s among the best documented open source projects, and nothing makes me prouder. If any part of Django endures, I hope it’ll be a sort of “documentation culture” — an ethos that values great, well-written documentation. To that end, I’m writing a series of articles laying out the tools, tips, and techniques I’ve learned over the years I’ve spent helping to write Django’s docs. This advice will mostly be targeted towards those documenting libraries or frameworks intended for use by other developers, but much of it probably applies to any for of technical documentation.
After a year being closely involved on the docs for Gatsby, I’ve learned a thing or two and have started seeing patterns in it and other projects about what can make them successful.
arc42 is a comprehensive framework for constructing, communicating, and documenting software architecture, designed to alleviate the challenges of documentation. It is developed by Dr. Gernot Starke and is open-source, offering practical training and resources for both seasoned and novice architects.