Documentation Generators vs Manual Documentation

Developers should use documentation generators to improve code maintainability, enhance collaboration, and ensure accurate documentation that evolves with the code meets developers should learn manual documentation to improve communication, facilitate onboarding, and maintain project knowledge, especially in complex or legacy systems where automated tools may not capture nuanced details. Here's our take.

Documentation Generators

Nice Pick

Developers should use documentation generators to improve code maintainability, enhance collaboration, and ensure accurate documentation that evolves with the code

Pros

• They are essential for large projects, open-source libraries, and API development where manual documentation can become outdated quickly
• Related to: markdown, api-documentation

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Manual Documentation

Developers should learn manual documentation to improve communication, facilitate onboarding, and maintain project knowledge, especially in complex or legacy systems where automated tools may not capture nuanced details

Pros

• It is crucial for creating user-facing documentation, API references, and design documents that require human interpretation and storytelling, such as in open-source projects or enterprise software with diverse stakeholders
• Related to: technical-writing, markdown

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Documentation Generators is a tool while Manual Documentation is a methodology. We picked Documentation Generators based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Documentation Generators wins

Based on overall popularity. Documentation Generators is more widely used, but Manual Documentation excels in its own space.