Lois Patterson: Markup Languages and Warp-Speed Documentation
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The presentation discusses how software development has moved towards more frequent releases through DevOps practices. This requires documentation to also be updated quickly. Markup languages can help by allowing many contributors to collaborate easily on documentation. Specific markup languages mentioned include reStructuredText and Markdown, which can be processed by tools like Sphinx to generate documentation from plain text files. The presentation demonstrates how to use reStructuredText and emphasizes that markup languages, collaborative tools like GitHub, and automation are key to supporting modern rapid software development practices.
Lois Patterson: Markup Languages and Warp-Speed Documentation
- 1. MARKUP LANGUAGES AND WARP-SPEED DOCUMENTATION Lois Patterson – Presentation
- 2. What this presentation is about • How software development culture is moving towards Dev Ops • Using markup languages to adjust to the Dev Ops culture • Advantages and disadvantages of different markup languages • How content written in a markup language is converted to attractive documentation • How you can switch to using markup languages Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 3. In the olden days … Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 4. Today’s demands • Weekly, daily, hourly releases Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 5. How about you? • What type of team? Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 6. Agile development • Agile workflows <-> continual, timely updates of code and docs Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 7. Are you agile? Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 8. Book recommendation: Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation Kindle Edition by Andrew Etter Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 9. Documentation is not separate from the product • Part of the product, embedded in the product Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 10. Dev ops and doc ops • Dev ops, doc ops • Full stack approach Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 11. Markup languages and doc ops • Simplify! o Writing o Docs production o Integration of docs with product Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 12. What is a markup language? • Plain text, with various tags or other elements that indicate how the text should be processed • HTML is best-known • XML – family of markup languages • Simple, doc-friendly markup languages: • reStructuredText • AsciiDoc • Markdown Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 13. Simple vs. complex markup languages • DITA and DocBook • reStructuredText, Markdown, and AsciiDoc • Overhead versus structure Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 14. Markup languages foster content collaboration • Learn a markup language quickly • Constant documentation updates require cross-team contributors • Make life easy for all contributors Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 15. Proprietary vs. open source • Expensive and difficult tools, limited licenses • Free tools, unlimited users Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 16. Markup + Processor • General principle: Write doc in markup language • Process the markup to get your final docs • DITA Open Toolkit, Sphinx (for reStructuredText), Jekyll (for Markdown) • Static site generators produce static HTML • Dynamic site generators render on the fly • GitHub processes various markup formats instantaneously Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 17. Let’s look at Markdown • My portfolio page at GitHub Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 18. Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 19. More about Github • 35 million repositories! Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 20. GitHub, markup languages, and collaborative culture • Github as an exemplar • Full engagement from team • Widespread contributions • We’re in this together Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 21. Collaborative culture Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 22. You can be a contributor • Help out open source software • Learn new technologies • Build your portfolio Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 23. Do you have a Github site? • Will you get a Github site? Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 24. Nitty-gritty Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 25. Challenges of unstructured languages • DITA forces unity among writers. Deviation is punished. • Impose structure with templates and standards. • “You can, but you shouldn’t.” • Structure and unity particularly important if localization is happening. Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 26. reStructuredText Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 27. Let’s look at reStructuredText • Start at readthedocs.org. (Docs at https://docs.readthedocs.io/ .) • Python community origin • Versatile • Used with Sphinx static site generator Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 28. Let’s look at reStructuredText • ReadTheDocs page, editable at GitHub • Rendered at GitHub • Rendered at ReadTheDocs.org • You can do the same! Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 29. Sample reStructuredText template Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 30. Sample reStructuredText template Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 31. Look at a specific example Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 32. restructuredText looks like this Getting Started =============== This document will show you how to get up and running with Read the Docs. You will have your docs imported on Read the Docs in 5 minutes, displayed beautifully for the world. If you are already using Sphinx or Markdown for your docs, skip ahead to :ref:`import-docs`.
- 34. Compare restructuredText to DITA XML •
- 35. XML (DITA XML) – VERY SIMPLE FILE • <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> • <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd"> • <topic id="topic_qk5_knc_fg"> • <title>Troubleshooting</title> • <body> • <p>Troubleshoot most common issues.</p> • </body> • </topic>
- 36. From source to docs with Sphinx •
- 37. SPHINX AND RESTRUCTUREDTEXT • reStructuredText (reST) is rather like Markdown. • Sphinx is a static site generator. • restructuredText other stuff (HTML, PDF, etc.) • restructuredText/Sphinx:: Markdown/Jekyll
- 38. SPHINX, DOCUTILS, RST - SUMMARY • Output formats • Extensive cross-references • Hierarchical structure • Automatic indices • Code handling • Extensions • Contributed extensions • Uses reStructuredText for markup, and Docutils for parsing See more: http://sphinx-doc.org/index.html
- 39. Want to author in reStructuredText and generate in Sphinx? Install Python first. (We used a 2.7.x version, but 3.3+ supported too.) Sphinx Tutorial: http://sphinx-doc.org/tutorial.html YouTube too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oJsUvBQyHBs Look, copy, build, experiment
- 40. Static site generators • Server load reduced • Less prone to network difficulties and intermittent errors • Speed, security • Available offline (many clients require this) • Recent count: 394 different ones • Choosing a well-supported one is key • Disadvantages too Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 41. Incorporating content from code • Pull content from the code • DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 42. Automate, automate, automate Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 43. Organization – still important Lois Patterson - Presentation
- 44. WHY WE LEFT THE CUSTOM XML WORLD • Custom XML locked us in. • HTML-based systems (e.g., MadCap Flare) do not easily integrate into our vision of all devs write • Did not really leave after all
- 45. GREAT THINGS ABOUT SPHINX AND RST • Well-developed eco-system • Python! • Versatile outputs • Easy to write • Easy to read • Text-based • Encourages topic-based authoring!
- 46. MORE BENEFITS • Everyone writes • Tool-agnostic (emacs, vim, Notepad++, SublimeText, whatever you love) • Version-control friendly
- 47. OLD VS. NEW Structured XML • Proprietary format • Complex build machinery • Tightly coupled with product (in a bad way) • Supports MathJax Positives Enforced programming structure It’s ours! Sphinx/rsT • Open format • Easy to build • Easy to write • Easy to read • Supports MathJax • Negatives • Some customization needed
- 48. TYPICAL CONVERSION WORKFLOW (XML TO RST) • High-level website design • Create templates (for our sanity) • Convert content • Create content • (All the time be building) • Integrate into product and build system
- 49. WEBSITE DESIGN (DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM) • A corporate-branded site, not a personal or open-source look • Standard UX and design work • Liaise with Marketing and other stakeholders • jinja templating engines are a starting point
- 50. CREATE RESTRUCTUREDTEXT TEMPLATES • restructuredText allows you to author without much structure (ironic?) • Enforce structure with templates and code reviews.
- 51. CONVERT CONTENT • Pandoc! http://www.pandoc.org/ • Semi-manual Custom scripts
- 52. ALWAYS BE BUILDING Know how your docs look at any moment. (Continuous integration for docs.)
- 53. INTEGRATE INTO PRODUCT BUILD SYSTEM
- 54. CODE PRACTICES FOR DOCUMENTATION • Code review • Version control • Automated testing
- 55. WHAT ABOUT? • Content reuse? • Content management systems?
- 56. CASE STUDY • Rackspace (along with NASA invented OpenStack) switched/is switching OpenStack docs from DocBook XML to Sphinx/RST. • http://justwriteclick.com/2015/02/23/state-of-the-migration-to-sphinxrst/ • https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Documentation/Migrate
- 57. CUSTOM EXTENSIONS Docs must pull information from the code in unique ways.
- 58. CREATE, USE MORE EXTENSIONS Sphinx has so many options, just finding what is available takes time.
- 59. WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER NOT SO BLAMELESS POST-MORTEM
- 60. COULD HAVE STARTED SOONER But Sphinx did not exist way back when ….
- 61. MORE AUTOMATION Lack of time, but still …
- 62. MAKE TASKS MORE GRANULAR Too big and scary a task? Break it down!
- 63. SHOULD YOU USE MARKUP LANGUAGES?
- 64. IT DEPENDS Consider: • Markdown (different flavors) • AsciiDoc • DocBook • DITA XML • Or ?
- 65. WHAT NOT TO DO • Design your custom bespoke system from scratch by yourself. • Except if …
- 66. RESOURCES • http://sphinx-doc.org/ • http://readthedocs.org • http://www.pandoc.org http://justwriteclick.com/2015/02/23/state-of-the-migration-to-sphinxrst/ https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Documentation/Migrate http://sphinx-doc.org/tutorial.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oJsUvBQyHBs
- 67. In summary Lois Patterson - Presentation • Technical writers must work faster than ever • Technical writers must collaborate across teams • Markup languages facilitate a collaborative culture • You have huge flexibility in the solutions you choose • Structure, standards, and process are as important as ever
- 68. THANK YOU! • Lois Patterson • [email protected] • Twitter: @LoisRP • Tumblr: http://www.AnAPIaDay.tumblr.com