.. meta:: :description: Find the software documentation system for Divio. Includes comprehensive tutorials, how-to guides, technical reference and explanation. Learn more here. .. raw:: html The Documentation System ======================== .. rst-class:: quote The Grand Unified Theory of Documentation .. rst-class:: attribution \- David Laing There is a secret that needs to be understood in order to write good software documentation: there isn’t one thing called *documentation*, there are four. They are: *tutorials*, *how-to guides*, *technical reference* and *explanation*. They represent four different purposes or functions, and require four different approaches to their creation. Understanding the implications of this will help improve most documentation - often immensely. About the system ---------------- .. image:: /images/overview.png :alt: 'overview of the documentation system' The documentation system outlined here is a simple, comprehensive and nearly universally-applicable scheme. It is proven in practice across a wide variety of fields and applications. There are some very simple principles that govern documentation that are very rarely if ever spelled out. They seem to be a secret, though they shouldn’t be. If you can put these principles into practice, **it will make your documentation better and your project, product or team more successful** - that’s a promise. :ref:`The system is widely adopted ` for large and small, open and proprietary documentation projects. .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 0 introduction tutorials how-to-guides reference explanation structure adoption Video presentation ------------------ If you'd prefer to watch a video covering this topic, here is it (courtesy of PyCon Australia 2017). .. raw:: html