TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Contents, Focus of Developer's Guide From:Susan W. Gallagher <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 4 Nov 2003 14:18:12 -0500
Vlad,
Devs hate to be called users! ;-)
The developers guide should be separate from any reference
material you provide for the API. Typically, you'll want to
include:
* An overview of the middleware -- what it is supposed to do
and what types of applications you can develop using it.
* An overview of what the customer's application is supposed
to look like. Talk about it in textbook terms for whatever
programming language you're documenting. For example, in C++
you'd want to talk about includes, inheritance, implementing
pure virtual functions, ... That sort of thing.
* Especially in the introductory material, provide lots of
flow diagrams and graphics. You may even want to include a
UML diagram of what the customer's app should look like.
* Walk the dev through the implementation details of an
example application, showing which functions were implemented, where, and why. The entire example should
compile and run.
* Don't forget to include instructions for building/compiling
the finished example.
> My employer wants to prepare a developer's guide for a ...
> suite of middleware products...
>
> But, would not such a document merely be a user guide for an audience that
> comprises developers? Can such a document not be merely called a user guide
> for developers?
>
> I would like to know your opinions on the following:
> * If a user guide for developers should be called a developer's guide, then,
> in what way would the developer's guide differ from other user guides?
> * What is the focus of a developer's guide?
> * What does a developer's guide typically contain?
>
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
