ELI5 vs Formal Documentation

Developers should learn and use ELI5 when creating documentation, teaching others, or communicating with non-technical stakeholders to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstandings meets developers should learn and use formal documentation to improve code maintainability, facilitate onboarding of new team members, and ensure compliance with industry standards or regulatory requirements. Here's our take.

ELI5

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use ELI5 when creating documentation, teaching others, or communicating with non-technical stakeholders to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstandings

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in onboarding new team members, writing user-friendly API docs, or explaining system architectures in meetings, as it fosters better collaboration and reduces the learning curve for complex subjects
• Related to: technical-writing, communication-skills

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Formal Documentation

Developers should learn and use formal documentation to improve code maintainability, facilitate onboarding of new team members, and ensure compliance with industry standards or regulatory requirements

Pros

• It is particularly critical in large-scale projects, open-source software, and enterprise environments where clear communication and reproducibility are paramount, such as in API development, system architecture, and safety-critical applications
• Related to: api-design, version-control

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. ELI5 is a concept while Formal Documentation is a methodology. We picked ELI5 based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

ELI5 wins

Based on overall popularity. ELI5 is more widely used, but Formal Documentation excels in its own space.