Rules for Writing Kickass Software Tutorials
2025-01-02
This blog post outlines rules for crafting exceptional software tutorials. It highlights the importance of avoiding jargon, clearly stating goals, providing copy-pasteable code snippets, maintaining a working code state, and minimizing dependencies. The author uses contrasting examples to illustrate the differences between good and bad tutorials, offering practical improvements such as using long command-line flags, separating user-defined values from reusable logic, and employing consistent, descriptive headings. The ultimate aim is to create beginner-friendly tutorials that are easy to understand and follow.