Survey looks to understand how FOSS developers use documentation
If you’re involved in the FOSS community, particularly the developer community, Andrew McGrath would like to pick your brain a bit before April 14.
McGrath is following a survey by Tim Lethbridge (“How Software Engineers Use Documentation”) that looks into how developers use documentation. The original survey looked into software engineers in general, but McGrath is trying to study the habits of FOSS developers in particular and wants to compare the results to Lethbridge’s.
The initial results from Lethbridge’s survey show that developers tend to favor simple documentation and “tend to ignore complex and time-consuming documentation.” (No surprises there.) The results of the survey might help those who are writing documentation for FOSS projects to focus on the most effective documentation for the larger community.
If you’re interested in taking the survey, you’ll find it here. Note that they’re looking for responses by April 14. The survey will remain up longer, but McGrath will begin analyzing results on April 14. It’s a relatively short survey. Results will be published on the Software for Humanity, and I’ll post an update once they’re available.
