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Discussion on: How to write a kickass README

 
scottydocs profile image
James.Scott • Edited

I'm not saying to discard anything. The early READMEs were absolutely terrible. If there was a lesson to be learned it would be: Do not copy the format of the example README from 1974 😂

I get your point re: it's good to have stuff in one place but if you're using a docs-as-code approach then your docs live alongside the code anyway so all of your docs files will be updated as you update the code.

I guess it's personal preference re: FAQs but for me, they don't belong in a README. Relevant article here: FAQs Are A Code Smell.

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togakangaroo profile image
George Mauer

I mean the people that created the stuff a lot of our works is based on surely had some aspects of it figured out :)

And yeah I agree an FAQ is absolutely a smell, it's just also often a reasonable concession for when you don't have resources for a more elegant solution.