Description
Thorough and optimal technical documentation often requires not just an API reference of endpoints and parameters, or long contextual instructions, but also code examples that users can cut and paste into their applications. As a technical writer at Stripe, I’m partially responsible for maintaining 150 code examples, each of which needs to be in 8 programming languages. In this presentation, I’ll explain the processes we’re using, the hurdles we’re facing, and the solutions we’ve devised thus far to make and maintain code examples that really shine.
Specific concepts covered include:
- Defining a style guide for your code
- Generating code examples programmatically
- Testing examples to ensure they work
- Using common snippets to save time
- Enhancing examples for a better user experience
Although we haven’t solved all our problems in this area, we’ve made great progress with great results, and I look forward to sharing our best policies and practices.