Informal Documentation vs API Documentation

Developers should use informal documentation to facilitate team collaboration, onboard new members, and document ad-hoc decisions or code rationale that don't fit into formal specs meets developers should learn api documentation skills when building or consuming apis, as it enables clear communication of api capabilities and requirements. Here's our take.

Informal Documentation

Nice Pick

Developers should use informal documentation to facilitate team collaboration, onboard new members, and document ad-hoc decisions or code rationale that don't fit into formal specs

Pros

• It's particularly valuable in agile environments, open-source projects, or when rapid iteration makes formal documentation impractical, as it reduces knowledge silos and improves code maintainability
• Related to: documentation-writing, code-comments

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

API Documentation

Developers should learn API documentation skills when building or consuming APIs, as it enables clear communication of API capabilities and requirements

Pros

• It is crucial for public APIs to attract developers, internal APIs to facilitate team collaboration, and microservices architectures to ensure interoperability
• Related to: openapi-specification, rest-api

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

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

The Bottom Line

Informal Documentation wins

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