snatchev/slate

Slate lets you generate clean, professional-looking documentation for your API without needing to hire a designer or write any HTML. Instead of forcing your users to click through dozens of separate web pages to find the information they need, it puts your entire documentation on a single, smoothly scrolling page. The layout is split into columns: descriptions on the left, code examples on the right, and a navigation table of contents that highlights your current spot as you scroll. The project is built so that you write your documentation entirely in Markdown, which is a simple, plain-text formatting style. If you want to show code samples in different programming languages, say, Python and Ruby, you just label the code blocks, and the tool automatically creates tabs for users to switch between them. It also handles syntax highlighting for nearly 60 languages out of the box, meaning your code snippets will have the appropriate colors and formatting applied automatically. A team building a new API would use this to give their developers a polished reference guide. For instance, companies like NASA, Coinbase, and Mozilla use it for their own API documentation. It is especially handy if you want to encourage other developers to suggest fixes or improvements. Since the output can be hosted as a public repository on GitHub, other developers can submit edits to your documentation the same way they submit code. Getting started involves forking the repository and running a few commands, which requires some basic familiarity with a terminal. The documentation notes that it is designed for Linux or OS X, and requires Ruby to be installed on your computer. Notably, the project makes a tradeoff in favor of simplicity and readability over multi-page complexity, which keeps things easy to navigate but means it is best suited for straightforward reference documentation rather than massive, sprawling knowledge bases.