JetBrains is hoping to beef up the way in which technical documentation is created with a brand new software referred to as Writerside.
Recently in an Early Access Program, Writerside is a platform for writing and participating on documentation, API references, tutorials, developer guides, and how-tos. It may be used as a plugin within the JetBrains IDE or as a standalone software.
“With Writerside, we need to empower writers with the equipment that builders have lengthy been the usage of. Sadly, documentation continues to be steadily overpassed, and technical writers don’t get the acknowledgement or the reinforce they deserve”, stated Anna Gasparyan, product lead for Writerside at JetBrains. “Our undertaking is to bridge the space between builders and writers and make documentation a staff game. If tech writers use the similar equipment as builders, akin to Git, computerized take a look at, and construct pipelines, it no longer handiest guarantees the standard of the overall output, however it must additionally make it more uncomplicated for all of the staff to give a contribution to medical doctors, evaluate them, and monitor adjustments.”
It helps Markdown and XML, and springs with over 100 integrated exams. Those come with checking out for damaged hyperlinks, lacking sources, wrong characteristic values, non-unique IDs, and extra. Builders too can configure it to test for his or her in-house spelling and magnificence conventions.
Writeside provides builders a are living preview of what their documentation will appear to be to customers. It additionally comprises customization choices for glance, akin to gentle or darkish mode, distinction, cushy or brilliant skins, and defining accessory colours.
Every other key characteristic to notice is that it maintains a unmarried supply of fact for tasks, enabling builders to reuse parts of content material and edit them from only one position somewhat than having to replace each example when adjustments are made.
It makes use of JetBrains’ spellchecker and grammar software, which makes use of AI to make its corrections. Recently this software helps over 25 languages, come with English, German, Spanish, and Chinese language.