Technical Documentation vs Code Comments

Developers should learn technical documentation skills to improve collaboration, facilitate onboarding of new team members, and create maintainable codebases with clear usage instructions meets developers should use code comments to improve code readability, facilitate team collaboration, and aid in future maintenance, especially in complex or non-intuitive sections. Here's our take.

Technical Documentation

Nice Pick

Developers should learn technical documentation skills to improve collaboration, facilitate onboarding of new team members, and create maintainable codebases with clear usage instructions

Pros

• It is essential in roles involving open-source contributions, API development, or complex systems where clear communication reduces errors and accelerates development cycles
• Related to: technical-writing, markdown

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Code Comments

Developers should use code comments to improve code readability, facilitate team collaboration, and aid in future maintenance, especially in complex or non-intuitive sections

Pros

• They are essential for documenting APIs, explaining algorithms, noting edge cases, and providing context for legacy code, which reduces onboarding time and prevents errors during modifications
• Related to: code-documentation, clean-code

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Technical Documentation if: You want it is essential in roles involving open-source contributions, api development, or complex systems where clear communication reduces errors and accelerates development cycles and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Code Comments if: You prioritize they are essential for documenting apis, explaining algorithms, noting edge cases, and providing context for legacy code, which reduces onboarding time and prevents errors during modifications over what Technical Documentation offers.

The Bottom Line

Technical Documentation wins

Developers should learn technical documentation skills to improve collaboration, facilitate onboarding of new team members, and create maintainable codebases with clear usage instructions