Learning how developers think, and other API doc insights: Podcast with Joe Malin
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In this podcast, I talk with Joe Malin about a variety of topics within API documentation, including how developers think, best practices, and more. Joe is a former software engineer who turned to technical writing many years ago. He has worked at a variety of companies in API documentation roles, including 7 years at Google.
Here are a few of the topics we cover in the podcast:
- Why Joe turned from software programming to writing
- What kind of API documentation he is currently working on
- Best practices for API documentation
- The brilliance of REST APIs as a means of interchanging information
- Whether REST API doc is easier than platform-API doc
- How much programming a person needs to know to do API documentation, particularly Javadoc
- How developers think, and other insights gained from learning programming
- Benefits of using Github and other source control repositories to share documentation
- His response to someone who says, "Well if I could write code, I would be a programmer instead of a technical writer."
- Contributions tech writers can make with code samples, including style guides for code
- Applications for visual communication with code
You can learn more about Joe Malin by visiting his Linkedin profile. To ask questions about API documentation, see the API Documentation group on Linkedin.
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About Tom Johnson
I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, agent skills, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my AI courses for more on the latest in AI and tech comm. If you're looking for info about documenting APIs, see my API documentation course.
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Finally, I want to note a couple of things. I usually write the first drafts of my posts myself and then use AI to improve accuracy, clarity, and detail in places, so my writing is a mix of human and AI. (Hopefully that's not too off-putting.) Also, the opinions I express on my blog are my own perspectives, not those of my employer.