Yeah. I'm a professional tech writer, proud of my skills. But in plenty of cases, source-code-with-docstrings is enough.

I hope someone wouldn't hide away these rough forms of documentation, waiting on some exquisitely-crafted docs that they might never get around to writing. I like what he's saying about organization, keeping in mind how someone's going to learn this stuff. But I think he's setting a high bar.

I read a book from 1896, Wilkinson's Submarine Cable Laying and Repairing. I was pretty impressed with the complicated grapnels they had back then--capable of scooping up a delicate cable, slicing the cable as appropriate. I was so impressed that I typed up the grapnel chapter, scanning in the illustrations: http://lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/frivolity/wilk inson/I_3.html