Good, thoughtful piece. I have one hopeful thing to say: for good software, maybe the documentation is tending to get 'built-in' in the form of tooltips, "what's this" links, etc.
That was out of the question, due to resource limits, a couple of decades ago - you were fighting to fit just the bare functionality in the code, and shipping the explanatory details on paper.
Now, however, there's nothing really preventing help-on-demand, instead of stop-and-go-dig-it-up elsewhere. Except, of course, the expense ...
exactly. i couldn't get into this article because it all hinged on a single, un-qualified assertion. what kind of documentation for what kind of projects? i don't see "documentation" going away, but my personal perspective is obviously limited to my own realm of software.
That was out of the question, due to resource limits, a couple of decades ago - you were fighting to fit just the bare functionality in the code, and shipping the explanatory details on paper.
Now, however, there's nothing really preventing help-on-demand, instead of stop-and-go-dig-it-up elsewhere. Except, of course, the expense ...