# On the beginner-friendliness of scientific libraries

**URL:** <https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/on-the-beginner-friendliness-of-scientific-libraries/7447>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [February 22, 2024, 6:33am UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/on-the-beginner-friendliness-of-scientific-libraries/7447 "2024-02-22T06:33:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vmagnin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fortran-lang.discourse.group/vmagnin/32/28_2.png) [@vmagnin](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/u/vmagnin)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/on-the-beginner-friendliness-of-scientific-libraries/7447/13 "2024-02-22T17:48:59Z")

</div>

> [@dwwork](#):
>
> At $DAYJOB I have written some documentation, and yes, it’s really hard.

It is hard because we don’t understand what the user needs and which structure should have a doc, and how to start. Diátaxis is answering those questions. And when you have understood, it is more fun to write a doc!

Most of the time, you will find libraries where the “Reference” quadrant is overwhelming, as it can be (relatively) easily automatically generated by tools like FORD or Doxygen. And the poor beginner feels overwhelmed… (three big letters are falling on his/her head: A P I 💥)

And writing documentation can be undervalued and coding considered to be more important. But not always, for example in the FreeBSD community people writing doc are considered as important as those coding, and that is why the FreeBSD is very good:

> [@FreeBSD 30th Anniversary (and what we can learn from that community)](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/freebsd-30th-anniversary-and-what-we-can-learn-from-that-community/6111/2):
>
> Reading the paper [FreeBSD at 30 Years: Its Secrets to Success](https://freebsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/mckusick_secret.pdf) I was thinking to people new to the Fortran-lang community and who don’t know how to contribute: Port [software packages], documentation, and development committers are all given equal say in how the project is run. Notably, they all can run for Core [of the FreeBSD organization] and get the same voting rights. In most projects, the developers have more say and others are treated as inferior. The FreeBSD project has worked on buildi…

---

_[View the full topic](https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/on-the-beginner-friendliness-of-scientific-libraries/7447)._