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Great documentation from open source projects

Combined Results

  1. Django
  2. PHP.net
  3. Perl
  4. Lodash
  5. Wordpress
  6. jQuery
  7. MDN

Rough Cut from Erin's Twitter survey

###Django (4) http://djangoproject.com Complete, literate, filled with practical examples, includes full tutorial.

Django! <3 the examples, no "doc rot", log of changes in new versions, links to view source. like a warm fuzzy blanket of docs.

The tutorials are real-world/narrative based. They walk you through “How to Do X”, but also take the time (if you’re interested) in explaining why you’re doing X. They serve both shallow/deep users.

csvkit

I frequently recommend @onyxfish’s csvkit docs as a solid way to learn the *nix command line.

Lodash (3)

Lodash is pretty impressive. Lots of examples (with live demos), links to source code, searchable. lodash.com lodash docs, because I can try it from console

It's concise, informationally-dense, and easy to reference over and over again.

The Rust Programming Language

I don't know if this counts because it's not strictly API docs, but The Rust Programming Language: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ . I'd never done systems programming and this book (which is open source and part of the core documentaion) made me feel like I could

Boost

Not quite what you're asking…I've always loved how Boost's docs include the rationale for decisions: Writing Documentation for Boost - Documentation Structure - 1.59.0 boost.org

Simple Statistics

http://simplestatistics.org/ by @tmcw et al is very good. Actual literate programming, and a library.

@rustlang’s docs are amazing, and their improvement is used as a way to introduce newcomers to the language.

Perl (3)

The documentation in Perl is generally quite good. (The IA of the package system is as well.) Mozilla DN docs are also ace. (Underscoring IA of module repositories as a huge huge HUGE issue.)

all the Perl modules until about 2002. A good culture of providing basic usage -> concrete examples -> reference -> advanced notes.

PHP.net (4)

people live http://php.net . It's hideous, but apparently very useful. PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor php.net

http://php.net for its breadth and for its very helpful community input in the comments; jQuery for same reasons

Wordpress (2)

https://developer.wordpress.org/reference among others. Pretty much anything with clear (visual rocks) real use examples. Reference | WordPress Developer Resources developer.wordpress.org

i'm partial to http://codex.wordpress.org (and http://make.wordpress.org ). clear, friendly, extensive, w/examples.

jQuery (2)

http://php.net for its breadth and for its very helpful community input in the comments; jQuery for same reasons

MDN (2)

those two plus MDN

Source Sans type design story

Best Open Source documentation of a project? The Source Sans type design story from @AdobeType, definitely.

ZeroMQ

And, differently good, ZeroMQ's doc design kinda matches its philosophy; + it has voice, attitude

dplyr & ggplot

anything by @hadleywickham, but in particular dplyr & ggplot

Angular 2

The angular 2 docs are impressive. Lightweight for newbies, progressing to detailed deep dives.

Python Requests Library

I've always liked the docs for pythons requests library great.

Open Stack

Probably #OpenStack ... well curated and pretty complete OpenStack Docs: Current docs.openstack.org

OpenBSD

OpenBSD man pages and documentation are really, really good

Music Store tutorial for @SuaveIO

Music Store tutorial for @SuaveIO makes no assumptions re starting knowledge, builds smthing practical from scratch 0 retweets 1 like Retweet

F# core lib

F# core lib cuz i dont really need documentation to understand it :-)

Phaser

http://phaser.io/docs/2.6.2/index … Phaser - Examples

Meteor

Meteor has fantastic documentation and beginner guides!

golang

golang docs for a programming language, tests create example docs,

Stripe API

stripe's api docs are pretty easy

Duck Duck Hack

@duckduckhack has some really impressive documentation. I've never seen an easier project to contribute to.

Elm

has anyone recommended elm? home elm-lang.org

it's really about the error messages compiler-errors-for-humans elm-lang.org

Java

Java, if that counts. Extreme thoroughness, navigability, and integration with source code & IDEs. 0 retweets 1 like Retweet

Emacs

I really like GNU Emacs' docs, and how well integrated they are into the UX itself

The Browserify handbook

The Browserify handbook remains one of my fave doc projects b/c it contextualizes the tool and the problem it solves 0 retweets 1 like Retweet

Flask

Flask's documentation is excellent: Welcome | Flask (A Python Microframework) flask.pocoo.org

jQuery API

I would have to say http://api.jquery.com it's all well described in "human-readable" format and there are examples and a demos. jQuery API Documentation jQuery: The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library api.jquery.com

mdn and web platform dot org

Numpy

Most that I’d mention are already mentioned, but I like numpy for combining brevity with useful examples: numpy.clip — NumPy v1.11 Manual docs.scipy.org

Django Girls intro to Python

Introduction · Django Girls Tutorial tutorial.djangogirls.org

Free BSD Handbook

http://FreeBSD.org/handbook covers a huge amount of things you might want to do when you setup a system

grailsfw

the #grailsfw docs are the best oss docs I've ever seen. They just answer every question...

http://www.slf4j.org/manual.html takes some beating (because it tells you exactly what you need to know and is really well written).

@BecomingDataSci

@habitica

@fedora

have excellent "how to contribute" documentation. Comprehensive while still welcoming.

if you're nerding out on docs, @readthedocs and @writethedocs have great resources! /@ericholscher

personally, my fave examples are friendly, explain why you should use (not just how), and have clear examples/tutorials :)

RYAN'S SURVEY—EXAMPLES OF GOOD DOCS

A sampling of responses to recent Twitter plea:

  • Django Project (mentioned by several people, and would have been high on my personal list as well)
  • Underscore
  • PHP.net (Waldo Jaquith suggested for interface + info)
  • Redis
  • PostgreSQL
  • Twilio
  • Tarbell
  • Agate

one theme that came up here as well as in conversation with Chris Groskopf: example-driven documentation. People LOVE when docs have real-world examples instead of just explanations and API references.