Which Programing Language Has Best Documentation?
Which Programing Language Has the Best Documentation?
with respect to overall practical effectiveness of the doc (easy to understand, easy to find topic or function, correctness, sample code for frequently needed use cases), the following are the best docs, each have different style and organization.
- Java → formal tech writing at best. Proper and correct use of computer science jargons. Well organized due to the lang's class hierarchy and naming.
- Golang → the tech writing is excellent, concise and to the point.
- PHP → grassroots, and opposite of formality. Most practical doc based on programers actual questions. If a question is common, it is in the doc, super easy to find, and lots examples.
- WolframLang → most practical, simply worded, and huge. A function call oriented language. (some 7 thousand builtin functions as of 2024) One doc page for each function, each with lots of examples. Plus hundreds of pages of intro, guide, on particular concept or howto or workflow.
- PowerShell → systematic format. Command oriented, each page discuss one command or one concept or one syntax. Each independent. Lots practical examples for each command.
- Ruby
- Racket Scheme Lisp
Java's doc is one of the earliest, supremely BEST technical writing in the computing industry, since 1995. Truly professional.
Also PHP, Of 2000s example. Best, but in a very different style, mostly, it's the MOST practical doc of all, entirely based on what user needs to do in practice.
Python doc, is the worst shit possible. The Guido van Rossum idiot, GREATEST low iq among lang creators, has a penchant on a pseudo formality. Lots words, lil info, and python doc is half-assed organized to guido's idiosyncratic notion of python's computation model, no concern about practical programer whatsoever, and almost no examples at all, because the Guido idiot has a sense of comp sci R us pretension, examples r beneath them.
Worst Programing Language Documentations
hard to understand, hard to find what you need, misleading or confused writing:
- Unix and linux man pages → incomprehensible opaque tech and implementation oriented description. Drags in implementation details of C often, irrelevent to users. No concern of user's needs. The writing is worst tech writing, even to the level of failing to communicate.
- Git → worst, incomprehensible, techno-drivel in the manner of unix man pages.
- Python → worst tech writing, inprecise, pretentious, no examples, impossible to find anything.
- Perl → juvenile drivel. Irrelevance everywhere. Intentionally sloppy. Cult brewing.
- Emacs lisp → good writing in the “manuals” era of 1980s, but extremely verbose with pages telling you what is the concept of copy paste or cursor. Most terrible organization. It's organized like a novel. Over 1k pages. Require you to read from beginning to end. Hard to find the function you need.
- Clojure → terse to a fault, with lots Java tech detail knowledge implicitly required.
- Ocaml → basically no doc.
- Haskell → theory-oriented academic mumble jumble that pretends to be provably correct description.
- JavaScript → effectively no doc. In 2017, Mozilla become the official unofficial JS doc and for related web tech, sponsored by Microsoft, Google, Samsung.
Open source wiki style docs, if without care, are often the worst. Mozilla's doc for JavaScript, is of this nature. For about 15 years, it is the world's most incorrect, error-ridden, random joe open source fanatics dunno what they talking about , open source fanaticism intermixed, shit.
2018-08-15 Have scoured the golang package docs.
Of 20 years docs reading obsession, i declare go's best. Clarity, concision, organization, consistency. The doc is so nice that makes you want to try every package!