The mistake most devs make when trying to document their project is that they only make one (maybe two) types of documentation based on a readme template and/or what their mental model of a newcomer needs.
Devs need to be actively taught that:
- Good documentation isn’t one thing, it’s four. To have good documentation, you need all four distinct types of documentation.
- What the four types of documentation are (this is discussed in the link)
If you don’t have all four types of documentation, you have bad documentation.
I’ve had that article saved for years, it’s still the best way to break down documentation imo.
Another key point for code documentation is that the closer it is to the code it’s describing, the more likely it is to be read and maintained. The book “A philosophy of software design” has a section on it.
What does this mean?