Why Don't We Document Our Software? Part 1: False Excuses

Save yourself the time - he sums up at the end of this fluff by saying, "In my next post I'll examine the real reasons we don't document our software systems."

Often when I find a bug in docs I don't bother reporting it, but...

If there was a website that showed the documentation for libraries and allowed you to edit the docs for functions / classes /etc wiki style, would you use it?

>> "When programmers develop 'for fun' we write documentation."

That's because they get something out of it. Namely, people won't use undocumented software and the authors want their software to be used.

In a corporate situation we don't document our software if we don't have to because we don't care (usually) whether or not people use it. If the company cares, it will force engineers to write documentation and we will do it because we don't want to get fired.