Show HN: Hyperdoc - We make code walkthrough guides (Moment.js) | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Hyperdoc - We make code walkthrough guides (Moment.js)

demo3.gethyperdoc.com

34 pointsthepenguinco16 comments

Hi HN,

We found that it was difficult for people who wanted to contribute to open source to actually start contributing since searching and finding relevant existing documentation related to the code itself was tough (which is important for new contributors, since they don't really know the codebase).

We built Hyperdoc, a documentation tool to help solve this problem and used it to write a code walkthrough guide for the popular open source software Moment.js to show how it works.

You can use the links in Hyperdoc to step through the guide.

If you want to contribute to Moment.js and you found this guide useful/insightful, we'd love to hear about it. Also, if you want to see a guide like this for one of your favourite open source projects or have any feedback, please shoot us an email at hello(at)gethyperdoc(dot)com.

Good idea. Documentation is generally bad. Hope this helps.

Thanks! Especially for open source projects, I find it difficult to submit a meaningful contribution quickly since I don't really understand the codebase.

I want to be able to click on the sections on the right side ad have the code scroll to the tag on the left side

Great idea! I was thinking the same thing. We're going to try and make the UI/UX a lot better and post a new guide soon.

interesting, seems like I get my own docker container to play with!

Thanks! What were you thoughts on the demo?

I think it's a bit confusing to have the full power of VSCode. I think restricting the menu items would be useful. Sorry got distracted by vscode too much!

Yes we agree! We are actually releasing a new guide with an updated UI and UX without VS Code soon :). Stay tuned!

Good Idea, but I didn't like the interface very much.

Hey Ethan,

I'd like to learn more about why so we can improve and make the experience better. What specifically didn't you like about the interface? Was it hard to use or was it UI related?

After using it a little bit more. I think what was hard for me initially (and is still a little cumbersome) is that the rendered markdown windows weren't always pinned if I started exploring the code.

I don't have a ton of experience using VS code so that may be something specific to me and could probably be fixed with a short intro guide on how to use this editor before I delve into a hyperdoc for a project.

Aside from that, one thing I didn't like about the UX is that if I did click a link in the rendered markdown for a specific function, let's say create.. then I didn't have a way to browse "back" to the top level README hyperdoc without clicking the readme in the file tree.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. We're actually redoing the UI/UX so that the Hyperdocs are easier to navigate, so we'll be posting a guide with the new interface soon! Thanks for the feedback!