However that wasn’t all DocC did, and it was a pleasing shock once we discovered it might use Markdown for each navigation construction and long-form documentation to accompany your generated API reference.

Nobody would have raised an eyebrow if that’s the place the device’s capabilities had stopped. However there was one huge shock left with it having the ability to produce absolutely interactive tutorials, like the Apple-authored ones they created to show SwiftUI. It is smart for Apple’s inside groups to all use the identical device slightly than having a “documentation device” and a “tutorial device”, however I nonetheless didn’t anticipate it.

The slight draw back is that these tutorials, whereas lovely and simple to learn, with screenshots that persist whereas the reader scrolls previous a number of tutorial steps, take a lengthy time to create. Would anybody outdoors Apple be prepared to place the work in to make them?

So I’ve been idly maintaining monitor each time I spot one within the wild, and whereas I’d not name them frequent, there are nonetheless a lot round, and I’d like to showcase a number of for you at the moment.

They’re even used to create coaching/workshop materials, which I didn’t anticipate.

It’s implausible to see individuals put effort and time into creating such high-quality tutorials. Nonetheless, should you simply appeared by way of these and felt intimidated, keep in mind that any documentation is best than nothing. Begin with API reference documentation, go deeper with Markdown articles, and solely think about including the “icing on the cake” with a tutorial after that.

It’s nice to see such a robust begin from DocC. This remark is already too lengthy, however I would write about what number of packages we see adopting it within the Swift Package deal Index sooner or later. It’s greater than we anticipated!

Dave Verwer