Project Documentation

Project documentation is essential for getting others to understand why and how your code is relevant to them, whether they are potentials users of your project or developers who may contribute to your code. A great first step in project documentation is your README file. It will often be the first interaction most users will have with your project.

Whether it's an application or a package, your project should absolutely come with a README file. At a minimum, this should explain what it does, list its dependencies, and provide sufficiently detailed instructions on how to use it. You want to make it as simple as possible for others to understand the purpose of your project, and quickly get something working.

Translating all your ideas and thoughts formally on paper can be a little difficult, but you'll get better over time and makes a significant difference in helping others realize the value of your project. Writing this documentation can also help you improve the design of your code, as you're forced to think through your design decisions more thoroughly. This also allows future contributors to know how to follow your original intentions.

A full Udacity course on this topic can be found here .

Here are a few READMEs from some popular projects:

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