Measuring API documentation on the web
Software development blogs, developer forums and Q&A websites are changing the way software is documented. With these tools, developers can create and communicate knowledge and experiences without relying on a central authority to provide official documentation. Instead, any content created by a...
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2011
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sg-smu-ink.sis_research-99542024-07-04T08:18:49Z Measuring API documentation on the web PARNIN, Chris TREUDE, Christoph Software development blogs, developer forums and Q&A websites are changing the way software is documented. With these tools, developers can create and communicate knowledge and experiences without relying on a central authority to provide official documentation. Instead, any content created by a developer is just a web search away. To understand whether documentation via social media can replace or augment more traditional forms of documentation, we study the extent to which the methods of one particular API — jQuery — are documented on the Web. We analyze 1,730 search results and show that software development blogs in particular cover 87.9% of the API methods, mainly featuring tutorials and personal experiences about using the methods. Further, this effort is shared by a large group of developers contributing just a few blog posts. Our findings indicate that social media is more than a niche in software documentation, that it can provide high levels of coverage and that it gives readers a chance to engage with authors. 2011-05-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8951 info:doi/10.1145/1984701.1984706 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9954/viewcontent/web2se11.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University api documentation social media crowd documentation Software Engineering |
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Software development blogs, developer forums and Q&A websites are changing the way software is documented. With these tools, developers can create and communicate knowledge and experiences without relying on a central authority to provide official documentation. Instead, any content created by a developer is just a web search away. To understand whether documentation via social media can replace or augment more traditional forms of documentation, we study the extent to which the methods of one particular API — jQuery — are documented on the Web. We analyze 1,730 search results and show that software development blogs in particular cover 87.9% of the API methods, mainly featuring tutorials and personal experiences about using the methods. Further, this effort is shared by a large group of developers contributing just a few blog posts. Our findings indicate that social media is more than a niche in software documentation, that it can provide high levels of coverage and that it gives readers a chance to engage with authors. |
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text |
author |
PARNIN, Chris TREUDE, Christoph |
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PARNIN, Chris TREUDE, Christoph |
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PARNIN, Chris |
title |
Measuring API documentation on the web |
title_short |
Measuring API documentation on the web |
title_full |
Measuring API documentation on the web |
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Measuring API documentation on the web |
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Measuring API documentation on the web |
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measuring api documentation on the web |
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Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University |
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2011 |
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https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8951 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9954/viewcontent/web2se11.pdf |
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