As a long time user and participant in open source communities, I've always known that documentation is far from being a solved problem. At least, that's the impression we get from many developers: "writing docs is boring"; "it's a chore, nobody likes to do it". I have come to realize I'm one of those rare people who likes to write both code and documentation.
Nobody will argue against documentation. It is clear that for an open-source software project, documentation is the public face of the project. The docs influence how people interact with the software and with the community. It sets the tone about inclusiveness, how people communicate and what users and contributors can do. Looking at the results of a “NumPy Tutorial” search on any search engine also gives an idea of the demand for this kind of content - it is possible to find documentation about how to read the NumPy documentation!
I've started working at Quansight in January, and I have started doing work related to the NumPy CZI Grant. As a former professor in mathematics, this seemed like an interesting project both because of its potential impact on the NumPy (and larger) community and because of its relevance to me, as I love writing educational material and documentation. Having official high-level documentation written using up-to-date content and techniques will certainly mean more users (and developers/contributors) are involved in the NumPy community.
So, if everybody agrees on its importance, why is it so hard to write good documentation?
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