As important as code is, documentation of that code is arguably more important. No developer, and no software, exists in a vacuum; unless other developers can understand the code you’ve written, it loses much of its potential impact.

But what about machines? Do they also need good docs?

The answer is yes, and points to a future of “tiered documentation,” a term I first saw described by Vlad Ionescu. As he details, tiered documentation means “having one set of documentation for human users and having another set of documentation specifically for LLM [large language model] training.” The former needs to be easily consumed by people; the latter needs to be detailed so that tools such as Amazon CodeWhisperer or GitHub Copilot will yield ever-improving code. It’s a fascinating concept with the ultimate aim of improving developer productivity. So, what do we need to get there?

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