Stack Overflow’s ‘Documentation’ Wants To Be The One True Information Source For Programmers

Stack Overflow might as well be the official documentation for all programming languages, given how often it’s used by developers to complement their abilities. The Q&A site however is dramatically increasing its scope with “Stack Overflow Documentation”, self-described as the “biggest expansion to Stack Overflow since it first launched”.

Stack Overflow’s Kevin Montrose defines the new “Documentation” as a “community-curated, example-focused developer documentation, based on the principles of Stack Overflow”.

So, what is it exactly? Or better yet, how is it different from what Stack Overflow is now? Here’s the official description:

Documentation is broad, and it is a general reference. You aren’t documenting a specific problem you’re facing, you’re helping others deal with an entire class of problems by documenting.

The focus is on “examples” — in fact, topics in Documentation require “at least one example” in order to be created.

If you’re wondering if Documentation will get wider support — it already has. Microsoft’s announced that docs.microsoft.com will integrate content from it.

It’s unclear whether other language stewards will follow in Microsoft’s footsteps, but it’s one heck of a vote of confidence.

Introducing Stack Overflow Documentation Beta [StackOverflow]


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