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Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

#41

Post by jmknoll »

hguhghuff wrote: post #36
cjbprime wrote: post #4

Stripe API docs. There have probably been many past threads about this.

Stripe started really really well with its developer, library and documentation support. In fact I think that’s a very large part of their initial success. At some point they lost that focus and dropped the ball. For example for a very long time they had no direct support for reactjs even when it was hugely popular, instead you had to go find some third party library which is a terrible thing to have to do for implem…

I think Stripe offers a great product, but I still don’t think they have direct support for react-native, relying instead on a third-party library which isn’t very well documented, and only implements portions of the stripe API.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

#42

Post by dividuum »

I really like the Lua reference manual. All on a single page (e.g. https://www.lua.org/manual/5.3/manual.html), covers the complete syntax/semantic of the language, a few concepts as well as its Lua and C embedding APIs. All without bells and whistles. It surely helps that it's a relatively easy language. While I learned Lua, I basically never had to look anywhere else for information. I guess that's what a good documentation is supposed to aim for.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

#44

Post by theelous3 »

jayflux wrote: post #37

I do like the PostgreSQL docs, they have a human feel to them and I usually get the answer I want pretty quickly. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/index.html

Huh. I've always found them to be the absolute worst docs I've ever seen. Any simple Google search will bring me to a page full of vaguely connected things with no particular headdings or way to quickly get the info I'm looking for.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

#45

Post by anoncoward111 »

edoceo wrote: post #21
anoncoward111 wrote: post #8

Side note, how do I volunteer or work part time writing technical documentation? I feel like my writing skills and my ability to make code understandable and explicit to other readers would be a perfecy use for producing great documentation.

I need some docs, would compensate, contact in my profile

I emailed one of the only public and most likely guessable aliases at your domain, please let me know if you would prefer for us to chat in a more cryptographically secure manner.

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What is the best API documentation you have ever seen?

#47

Post by narrowtux »

theelous3 wrote: post #44
jayflux wrote: post #37

I do like the PostgreSQL docs, they have a human feel to them and I usually get the answer I want pretty quickly. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/static/index.html

Huh. I've always found them to be the absolute worst docs I've ever seen. Any simple Google search will bring me to a page full of vaguely connected things with no particular headdings or way to quickly get the info I'm looking for.

They become more useful with time, i.e. when you know what to look for on a page. But I wouldn't call them great either.
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