Recent obsession: "genres" in technical writing.
Is there a better word for this?
What I mean is — books, blog posts, etc. that belong to a recognizable category/style, with shared characteristics and particular pedagogical POV.
A thread with some of my favourite examples…
Is there a better word for this?
What I mean is — books, blog posts, etc. that belong to a recognizable category/style, with shared characteristics and particular pedagogical POV.
A thread with some of my favourite examples…
Patrick Dubroy
@dubroy
·
May 23
Every subject should have a series like this.
"Build Your Own X" — get a deeper understanding of a certain tool/library by building a toy implementation from scratch.
build-your-own.org/redis/
pomb.us/build-your-own…
build-your-own.org/redis/
pomb.us/build-your-own…
"Gems" — small, bite-sized bits of practical knowledge.
The original (AFAIK) was the "Graphics Gems" series: glassner.com/portfolio/grap…, but it's inspired others:
GPU Gems, Game Programming Gems, etc.
The original (AFAIK) was the "Graphics Gems" series: glassner.com/portfolio/grap…, but it's inspired others:
GPU Gems, Game Programming Gems, etc.
Cheat sheets!
(Maybe more of a medium than a genre.)
simon.html5.org/dump/html5-can…
github.com/gendx/pdf-chea…
(Maybe more of a medium than a genre.)
simon.html5.org/dump/html5-can…
github.com/gendx/pdf-chea…
Of course there many famous books series (dummies, 24 hours, etc.) but those are more of a marketing thing than a true genre imo.
https://twitter.com/dubroy/status/1759937179684602184 ∙ Archived on 2025-03-28.