38
APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market Ed Marshall Copyright 2008

APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Presented by Edward Marshall at Documentation and Training East 2009, October 29 - November 1, 2008 in Burlington, MA.Documenting Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) is a challenging but rewarding niche in technical communication. This session discusses what these products do, who uses them, moving into this area, benefits / drawbacks to working on these products, issues unique to these products, and commonly used help authoring tools. As the demand is often greater than the supply of writers, you can get higher pay than for other types of writing. You often get greater flexibility in telecommuting / working remotely in this area. Sample source code and the documentation produced from them will be shown.

Citation preview

Page 1: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Ed Marshall

Copyright 2008

Page 2: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

APIs and SDKs

API = Application Programming InterfaceSDK = Software Development Kit

• Typical users and why they use them• Typical producers of these products• Examples

Page 3: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Typical Documentation Deliverables

• Programmer’s reference guides• Online help (in some format, more later)• Programmer’s guides• Data dictionaries• API and SDK installation manuals• System administrator's guides• User configuration guides

Page 4: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Ideal Information for SDKs

• Provide an overview of the SDK• Describe the tools and components in the SDK

and how they relate to the APIs• Describe each tool in detail• Describe any sample programs included in the

SDK

Page 5: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Ideal Information for APIs

• Break each component into the various families

• Describe each API completely, including cross-references to any types used in the definition

• Provide and explain examples that show both trivial and complex use of the class / API

Page 6: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Reference Information for APIs

• Brief description• Syntax• Examples, examples, examples!• Error messages• Cross-references

Page 7: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Examples of API / SDK Documentation

• Visual Basic ActiveX Control Help Sample –print and online help

• C++ API Help Sample – print and online help• Typical SDK documentation – Guide to Tools,

Programmer’s Reference, Programmer’s Guide, etc.

Page 8: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Key Programming Concepts

• Data types / variables• Program control – loops, conditions, etc.• Logical operators• Data structures such as arrays• Functions / methods

Page 9: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Benefits to the Writer

• Do more advanced technical writing = Higher pay / higher status

• Good if you like to play with software at the code level, create / test examples, talk / write in gibberish

• Work more closely with developers

Page 10: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Drawbacks to the Writer

• Possibly restrictive / repetitive writing• Possibly less contact with users as they are

developers / programmers themselves• Possibly, more technically challenging

development / build environments

Page 11: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Knowledge / Personality Traits that Work Well

• Some knowledge of programming languages BUT you don’t have to be a programmer!

• Willingness to work with advanced / programmer types of tools – Use software instead of specs

• Desire to work at the code level and write for developers who work at the code level

Page 12: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Knowledge / Personality Traits, cont.

• Willingness / confidence to work closely with senior developers

• Ability to develop context-sensitive level help at a lower-level than typical end-user (window-level) help

Page 13: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Ways to Get Information

• Read the specifications• Use the software• Attend demos• Run automated tools against the software• Provide fill-in-the-blank templates to

developers

Page 14: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Build and Deployment Issues

• Use of automated build systems• Use of source code control systems• Other tools to do file comparisons, advanced

text editors, multi-file search and replace, etc.

Page 15: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Determining Which Help Format to Use

• Platforms • Browsers• Minimum versions required by your product

Page 16: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Common Help Formats

• WinHelp – Not in Vista but…• HTMLHelp 1.x• HTMLHelp 2.0 (used with Microsoft

VisualStudio.NET)• WebHelp / Web Help• JavaHelp• Vista help – Not available to us in Vista

Page 17: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Context-sensitive Help

• Need to determine if it is necessary• Need developers to implement / hook to the

API• Have to use the appropriate API for the help

format• Mapping of context IDs to numbers / text

strings• Need to test all links from the product

Page 18: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Sample Context ID Mapping for HTMLHelp

Sample .h file entry:#define IntroTopic 0001#define CloseSpeech_PM 2001#define EngineTerminated_E 3001

Sample .ali file entry:IntroTopic=Intro_Topic.htmCloseSpeech_PM=CloseSpeech_Method.htmEngineTerminated_E=EngineTerminated_Event.htm

Page 19: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Automated Tools

• Doxygen • JavaDoc• Sandcastle – New tool for .Net help (MSDN

style). Doc-to-Help supports Sandcastle help.• Others

Page 20: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Doxygen• Very powerful code generation tool• Free• Reads specially formatted comments in code• Supports C / C++, Java, (Corba and Microsoft) Java,

Python, IDL, and C#• Outputs RTF, compiled HTML Help, browser-based

help, and LaTex (PDF)• Active development / support• www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/download.html#latests

rc – current version is 1.5.5

Page 21: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

JavaDoc

• Powerful code generation tool for Java• Free• Reads specially formatted comments in code• Outputs browser-based help• Active development• www.sun.com – current version: Java Development

Kit 5.0 Update 15 • www.doclet.com – source for Java Doclets and

Javadoc information

Page 22: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Help Authoring Tools (HATs)• Flare – www.madcapsoftware.com• RoboHelp – www.adobe.com• Help & Manual - www.ec-software.com/• WebWorks ePublisherPro – www.quadralay.com• Doc-to-Help – www.componentone.com• AuthorIT – www.authorit.comFor a searchable database of HATs, see hat-

matrix.com/ - Char James-Tanny’s service

Page 23: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Microsoft IDEs

• Visual Studio 2008 Visual C++• Visual C #• Visual Basic

All free from http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/

Page 24: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Other IDEs

• Sun NetBeans – www.sun.com (Free - search for NetBeans)

• Eclipse – www.eclipse.org (a free open source IDE)

Page 25: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Advanced Text EditorsNoteTabPro and EditPadPro:

• Both tools have: Spell-checking. Big plus if you work in a mixed OS environment: Neither tool inserts Windows-style line feedcharacters in Unix files.

• NoteTabPro has an auto-complete option for html tags and other languages. Has a free version with reduced functionality.www.notetab.com $19.95, Lots of other tools here.

• EditPadPro has color-coding for custom html tagswww.jgsoft.com $39.

Free full-featured (except for Spell Check) evaluation download available.JG Soft has other tools such as a PowerGrep tool, Registry editor, and others.

Page 26: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

File / Folder Level Comparison (Differencing Tools)

• Beyond Compare – Performs folder and file level comparisons, ASCII and binary. Can detect that ASCII or binary files are different but can only show the differences in ASCII files, not binary files. Highlights the specific characters different between 2 ASCII files. Has a 30-day full-featured free trial.

www.scootersoftware.com/

Retail price: $30

• Araxis Merge - Performs folder and file level comparisons, ASCII and binary. Has a 30-day free trial.

www.araxis.com/merge/index.html

Retail price: $129

Page 27: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Search and Replace Tool

Funduc – Searches & replaces both folders and zip files. Will search & replace ASCII and binary files. Will search binary files but cannot replace by itself. Has plug-ins for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

www.funduc.com $25

Many other tools here also.

Page 28: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Sample APIs

• Google APIs –code.google.com/more/#label=APIs&product=gdata

• Google Earth API – earth.google.com/comapi/• Google Maps API –

code.google.com/apis/maps/• BackPack – www.backpackit.com/

Page 29: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Breaking into this Market

• Get training to develop the skills:- Courses- Self-paced training- On-the-job training

• Make your own sample help systems, with context-sensitive help coded

• Write some sample programs

Page 30: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Education / Training Opportunities

• Programming courses at local colleges• STC conferences / workshops

Page 31: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Self-Paced Training• Manuel Gordon’s API materials

(www.gordonandgordon.com)• Documenting APIs: Writing Developer

Documentation for Java APIs / SDKs – James Bisso / Victoria Maki (www.bitzone.com/book.html)

• Deitel & Deitel “(C / C++ / C# / Java) How to Program”

• Sams “Teach Yourself…”• Sample projects, such as the HTML Help API

Page 32: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Other Resources

• MSDN – msdn.microsoft.com• RoboWizard Web site – www.robowizard.com • Flare forums – www.madcapsoftware.com• RoboHelp / Flare Web site – www.grainge.org/

Page 33: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Listservers (Yahoo Groups)

• STC API – groups.yahoo.com/group/svcstcapi/• API writers –

groups.yahoo.com/group/APIWriters/• NetTechWriters –

groups.yahoo.com/group/nettechwriters/• HATT – groups.yahoo.com/group/HATT/

Page 34: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Listservers (Yahoo Groups), cont.

• MSHelp 2.0 –groups.yahoo.com/group/MSHelp2/

• Eclipse – groups.yahoo.com/group/eclipse_tw/

Page 35: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Web Services – A Growing Area

• Web Service - An application that provides a Web API to perform application integration

• Platform / language independent• Related to service oriented architectures

(SOAs)• Uses SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

to send / receive XML messages

Page 36: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Web Services / SOA resources

• Web Services A Manager’s Guide – Anne Thomas Mannes

• Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies –Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, and Carol Baroudi

Page 37: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Summary

• Description of APIs / SDKs • Benefits to writers• Drawbacks to writers• Training• Writing considerations (tools, formats, issues

for context-sensitive help)

Page 38: APIs and SDKs: Breaking Into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market

Closing• Thank you.• Questions?

Ed Marshall

Marshall Documentation [email protected]

www.MarshallDocumentationServices+1 978-339-3095