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prioritize documentation clarity

jj-vcs/jj
Based on 7 comments
Rust

Write documentation that prioritizes user understanding over technical precision. Avoid unclear phrases, overly technical explanations, and unhelpful references. When in doubt, choose clarity over brevity, especially for user-facing documentation that may be someone's first encounter with a feature.

Documentation Rust

Reviewer Prompt

Write documentation that prioritizes user understanding over technical precision. Avoid unclear phrases, overly technical explanations, and unhelpful references. When in doubt, choose clarity over brevity, especially for user-facing documentation that may be someone’s first encounter with a feature.

Key principles:

  • Replace unclear phrases with specific, concrete language (e.g., “does not undo the effects on the remote” instead of “does not undo the push itself”)
  • Add user-friendly explanations for commands and features, explaining their use-case and context
  • Simplify overly technical descriptions that sound like code explanations rather than user guidance
  • Make references to familiar concepts rather than asking users to “read the source code” or “experiment”
  • When documentation might be someone’s first reference point, err on the side of being more comprehensive and clear, even if longer

Example of improvement:

// Before: Technical and unclear
/// Template which, upon being forced (`extract()`ed), will evaluate its
/// condition and select between a template for the true case and a template
/// for the false case (which will yield nothing if it is [`None`]).

// After: Clear and user-focused  
/// Template which selects output based on a boolean condition.

This approach ensures documentation serves its primary purpose: helping users understand and effectively use the code.

7
Comments Analyzed
Rust
Primary Language
Documentation
Category

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