red-library.com » documentation http://www.red-library.com Programming & Web Development Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:55:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Why you should read documentation http://www.red-library.com/why-you-should-read-documentation-34 http://www.red-library.com/why-you-should-read-documentation-34#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:21:43 +0000 Sean http://www.red-library.com/?p=34 Something struck me today whilst reading a tweet from a developer I consider to be on top of their game. They had an issue with a framework doing something unexpected and annoying, and after hours of trying to get around it, eventually they had to get a solution. They posted a tweet asking if anyone knew the solution as they suspected it would just be something really simple which they didn’t know.

Helpfully someone responded and pointed them in the right direction, but only then did this developer actually bother to look at the documentation themselves. The solution was simple and was fully documented – so why not check it out first to alleviate all that bother?

While this is a good example of the value of Twitter, I can’t help but feel that the documentation should always be your first port of call. I don’t ask someone until I’ve checked out the documentation for myself. Chances are the docs will have the answer, along with a whole lot of other info which could really help you out. At least that is what I find!

So, next time you have a problem – look it up! Chances are you’ll get more than you asked for.

]]> http://www.red-library.com/why-you-should-read-documentation-34/feed 0