This was once posted on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832, so give credit there, if you want.

It is like periodic table for chemical elements, singularly the one best thing about documentation that I ever read. It helped me immensely to structure the way I am thinking about documents. It starts with clear delineation of four quadrants: tutorials, how-tos, explanation and reference, and everything just clicks from there. I found that my problems usually due to subconsciously mixing them up - and setting the boundaries is very useful.

I read an article[0] on HN[1] recently — it talks about the different types of documentation. To quote it directly:

"Documentation needs to include and be structured around its four different functions: tutorials, how-to guides, explanation and technical reference. Each of them requires a distinct mode of writing. People working with software need these four different kinds of documentation at different times, in different circumstances - so software usually needs them all."

I agreed with its premise — I've found things that only have "story format" docs (i.e. explanation / how-to guides) to be really frustrating. On the other hand, if all that's available is a deep and highly particular technical reference, it's really difficult to get started sometimes.

[0] https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832

This reminds me of the article talking about the four different kinds of documentation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832

I found that four-way distinction to be quite useful.

> I should also like to point out that when I posted this a week or so ago ...

To be fair, when the article was posted under its Divio url a year ago it got 717 likes and 199 comments - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832

I'll not repost the comment I made on that thread (because: too many spammy links) but the advice in the article is good; I wish more people would follow the recommendations.

This looks quite interesting, thanks for sharing.

I found the other recent thread on technical writing useful, too: Four kinds of documentation https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21289832