gnus: On Writing Manuals

 
 11.3 On Writing Manuals
 =======================
 
 I guess most manuals are written after-the-fact; documenting a program
 that’s already there.  This is not how this manual is written.  When
 implementing something, I write the manual entry for that something
 straight away.  I then see that it’s difficult to explain the
 functionality, so I write how it’s supposed to be, and then I change the
 implementation.  Writing the documentation and writing the code go hand
 in hand.
 
    This, of course, means that this manual has no, or little, flow.  It
 documents absolutely everything in Gnus, but often not where you’re
 looking for it.  It is a reference manual, and not a guide to how to get
 started with Gnus.
 
    That would be a totally different book, that should be written using
 the reference manual as source material.  It would look quite different.