diff --git a/02-Context-or-Narrative/State-of-PureScript-Documentation-2019.md b/02-Context-or-Narrative/State-of-PureScript-Documentation-2019.md index 27b4401..6080f13 100644 --- a/02-Context-or-Narrative/State-of-PureScript-Documentation-2019.md +++ b/02-Context-or-Narrative/State-of-PureScript-Documentation-2019.md @@ -5,29 +5,42 @@ This document is not meant to convince you to use PureScript, we assume that rea Numerous parties within the PureScript community (e.g. [core contributors](), [users](), [new learners]()) believe that the documentation is lacking in some critical areas. As a result, @chexxor started the [PureScript documentation efforts in 2019](https://discourse.purescript.org/t/purescript-documentation-efforts-in-2019/524) Discourse thread to answer one question: > How can we improve the PureScript documentation in 2019? -(Purpose) The following document tries to do the following things: -1. Provide a researched narrative of PureScript's documentation development and history. -2. Speak to individual audiences - - New learners (regardless of language background) - - PureScript documentation writers - - Core contributors -3. Brainstorm outcomes for improving PureScript's documentation in this context. +(Purpose) The following document tries to answer that question. That question is too abstract to be actionable, however, so we need to re-phrase it. "Documentation" targets a specific audience by nature, and because the original question doesn't specify an audience let's simply try to address the question for each relevant audience: + +1. PureScript learners +2. PureScript documentation writers +3. Core contributors Table of Contents -- [What is "Good" Documentation Anyway?](#what-is-good-documentation-anyway) - - [Evaluating PureScript's Documentation](#evaluating-purescripts-documentation) -- [Why is PureScript's Documentation Lacking?](#why-is-purescripts-documentation-lacking) -- [Addressing Audiences](#addressing-audiences) - - [New Learners: What is the Best Way to Learn PureScript?](#new-learners-what-is-the-best-way-to-learn-purescript) - - [PureScript Documentation Writers: What is the Best Way to Write Documentation in this Context?](#purescript-documentation-writers-what-is-the-best-way-to-write-documentation-in-this-context) - - [Core Contributors: "How Should We Support You?" and Other General Feedback](#core-contributors-how-should-we-support-you-and-other-general-feedback) -- [Everyone: What Should Our Documentation Outcomes Be?](#everyone-what-should-our-documentation-outcomes-be) +- [State of PureScript Documentation: 2019](#state-of-purescript-documentation-2019) + - [Documentation for PureScript Learners](#documentation-for-purescript-learners) + - [What should documentation look like?](#what-should-documentation-look-like) + - [How does current PureScript documentation compare?](#how-does-current-purescript-documentation-compare) + - [Why is this documentation lacking?](#why-is-this-documentation-lacking) + - [How should we improve these weak areas of documentation?](#how-should-we-improve-these-weak-areas-of-documentation) + - [Documentation for Documentation Writers](#documentation-for-documentation-writers) + - [What should documentation look like?](#what-should-documentation-look-like) + - [How does current PureScript documentation compare?](#how-does-current-purescript-documentation-compare) + - [Why is this documentation lacking?](#why-is-this-documentation-lacking) + - [How should we improve these weak areas of documentation?](#how-should-we-improve-these-weak-areas-of-documentation) + - [Documentation for Core Contributors](#documentation-for-core-contributors) + - [What should documentation look like?](#what-should-documentation-look-like) + - [How does current PureScript documentation compare?](#how-does-current-purescript-documentation-compare) + - [Why is this documentation lacking?](#why-is-this-documentation-lacking) + - [How should we improve these weak areas of documentation?](#how-should-we-improve-these-weak-areas-of-documentation) +- [What Should Our Documentation Outcomes Be?](#what-should-our-documentation-outcomes-be) (The above Table of contents was generated by http://tableofcontent.eu) -## What is "Good" Documentation Anyway? +## Documentation for PureScript Learners + +What is a "PureScript learner"? We'll define a PureScript learner as someone interested in PureScript or actively learning how to use it. + +### What should documentation look like? + +Before we can look at improving the documentation for this audience, we need to decide what this documentation *should* look like. The following sources offer descriptions of effective documentation which are quite well-reasoned: [What Nobody Tells You About Documentation](https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/) and [Teach, Don't Tell](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/09/teach-dont-tell/). It's important to note that this section is sourced from only two blog posts, so please understand that this is a starting point for defining "good" documentation, not a final "there's nothing more to say" conclusion. -There are 5 types of documentation that target specific phases of a learner's experience (as explained in [What Nobody Tells You About Documentation](https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/) and [Teach, Don't Tell](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/09/teach-dont-tell/)) +Based on these sources, there are 5 phases of a learner's experience, each having an appropriate format of effective documentation. | Learner's Phase | Type | Analogy | Characteristics | -- | -- | -- | -- | @@ -35,9 +48,9 @@ There are 5 types of documentation that target specific phases of a learner's ex | Potential User | Getting Started | Teaching a child how to cook | | New User | How-To Guides | Following a cookbook's recipe | | Active User | Reference | Reading an encyclopedia | -| Experienced User | Explanation | Listening to a CEO answer questions about his company | +| Experienced User | Explanation | Listening to a CEO answer questions about his company | -Moreover, there are clear examples of "bad" documentation (as explained in [Teach, Don't Tell](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/09/teach-dont-tell/)): +It's also important to take note of forms of documentation which are clearly "bad", as explained in [Teach, Don't Tell](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/09/teach-dont-tell/): | Documentation Source | Why it's bad | | -- | -- | @@ -46,11 +59,11 @@ Moreover, there are clear examples of "bad" documentation (as explained in [Teac | API docs | One must know the name of the function/value to be able to read its documentation. Most won't know the name until you teach it to them. Likewise, people don't learn by reading alphabetized lists of disconnected information | Wiki | Content is usually not written by the code's authors, but by multiple 3rd-party people. There are often multiple disconnected voices throughout the material. It's like asking a student to write his own lesson plan. -Note: this section is sourced from only two blog posts, [What Nobody Tells You About Documentation](https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/) and [Teach, Don't Tell](http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/09/teach-dont-tell/). Understand these as a starting point for defining a criteria for "good" documentation, not a final "there's nothing more to say" conclusion. +### How does current PureScript documentation compare? -### Evaluating PureScript's Documentation +Now that we have defined what PureScript's documentation *should* look like, what does PureScript *currently* have for documentation? -Below, we tagged each documentation effort with its documentation type (if yours isn't listed or is incorrect, notify us). By looking at what exists, we can see that the following types of documentation are lacking: +Below, we tagged each documentation effort with its documentation type (if yours isn't listed or is incorrect, notify us). From seeing this, it looks like the following types of documentation are lacking: - Hooks - How-To Guides - Explanations @@ -82,15 +95,15 @@ Here's what has been added to the above since then: | A Guide to the PureScript Numeric Hierarchy | Explanation | New Learners | Read the Docs | Make the Leap from JavaScript to PureScript | Getting Started + Explanation | Javascript developers | Blog Post series -## Why is PureScript's Documentation Lacking? +### Why is this documentation lacking? Here's the short version. Each paragraph will have a link that explains its summary in more detail. It is difficult to define what are FP's "best practices / design patterns." The issues explained below are mostly situational; they will improve in time. However, this "best practices" issue is hard to address because it is subjective in nature, requires a lot of expertise, and requires a great communicator. [further explained here]() -PureScript is not _currently_ trying to be the next "mainstream language." Rather, it values "power" over "popularity" and so works towards those ends. [further explained here]() +PureScript is not _currently_ trying to be the next "mainstream language," which prioritizes onboarding new users. Rather, it values "power" over "popularity" and so works towards those ends. [further explained here]() -While developing the language, core contributors incurred a lot of responsibility (e.g. library maintenance, documentation updates, updating Pursuit and other related sites, etc.). Over time, they became spread thin and one even burned out. [further explained here]() +While developing the language, core contributors incurred a lot of responsibility (e.g. library maintenance, documentation updates, and updating Pursuit and other related sites). Over time, they became spread thin and one even burned out. [further explained here]() Thus, they cannot quickly respond to most people's questions or contributions. With the small amount of time they do have, they are focusing on adding new language features, not improving the documentation situation. The language's development is steady (6-week release cycle) but slow. Moreover, only some of them have write/deploy access to key documentation infrastructure (e.g. Pursuit, documentation repo, Try PureScript, etc.) [further explained here]() @@ -106,9 +119,9 @@ Moreover, there are other factors independent of the "breaking changes" issues. Finally, Jordan believes that **not all documentation efforts are always affected by breaking changes**. -## Addressing Audiences +### How should we improve these weak areas of documentation? -### New Learners: What is the Best Way to Learn PureScript? +(to do, but following is previous content possibly related) First, PureScript is mainly used for front-end work, not back-end work. While it is used for the back-end in some situations, most tend to use Haskell or another language, even if PureScript would be a better language in some situations. These languages already have mature libraries with people maintaining them. So, the incentives to improve this situation are not quite there. @@ -122,11 +135,23 @@ Second, your language background affects how easy or hard it is to learn PureScr | Elm | [An Outsider's Guide to Statically Typed Functional Programming (Book)](https://leanpub.com/outsidefp) | -- | Haskell | [Introduction to PureScript (PDF)](http://code.adriansieber.com/adrian/adriansieber-com/src/branch/master/posts/_2018-11-01_introduction_to_purescript_for_haskell_developers/main.pdf)

[Differences from Haskell](https://github.com/purescript/documentation/blob/master/language/Differences-from-Haskell.md) | -- -### PureScript Documentation Writers: What is the Best Way to Write Documentation in this Context? +## Documentation for Documentation Writers + +### What should documentation look like? Read through the entirety of the [Good Documentation.md]() file. We only listed the 5 types of documentation above to make this document shorter. -### Core Contributors: "How Should We Support You?" and Other General Feedback +### How does current PureScript documentation compare? + +### Why is this documentation lacking? + +### How should we improve these weak areas of documentation? + +## Documentation for Core Contributors + +### What should documentation look like? + +We need to ask core contributors what would be valuable to them. Following is a questionnaire we can use to collect this information. Please answer the below questions. @@ -160,7 +185,14 @@ To help with consistency, copy the below questions and paste them into your comm ``` -## Everyone: What Should Our Documentation Outcomes Be? +### How does current PureScript documentation compare? + +### Why is this documentation lacking? + +### How should we improve these weak areas of documentation? + + +# What Should Our Documentation Outcomes Be? Our purpose is clear: improve the documentation situation