jquery/learn.jquery.com — Issue #39: Content discussion
Author: addyosmani
Created: 2012-01-08 00:04:37+00:00
State: open

The learning site needs to be an authoritative source of information for learning everything to do with jQuery. I believe that's the end goal we're after with this project. Right now, however, although the content we have sat well in the context of jQuery Fundamentals, it is no-where near comprehensive enough to match what our goals are with the site. (we're finding this as we read through the sections again - see #38 for one example)

It came up in a recent call, but I'd like to discuss just how much the API docs might influence the content in the learning site. Over time, the quantity of narrative we've seen go into the API docs has increased and I believe it might be of mutual benefit to discuss how we can both tackle our problem of content (and help avoid overflow in the docs site at the same time).

For example, I would expect the API docs to cover detailed information about methods, a few examples and of course, gotchas. Beyond that perhaps any narrative that seeks to teach developers how to use a feature (including code snippets, tutorials etc) should perhaps be in the learning site. We can then cross-reference content to avoid a significant amount of duplication and ensure users have a clear path of where to a) learn about a feature and b) get API reference for it.

We can (and will) of course probably continue to seek the integration of well written blog posts about API features the learning site covers in there, but when it comes to features like say..$.ajax(), I've seen nothing as comprehensive as what we have in the API docs at the moment. If we feel that it would make more sense for the learning site to merely be an introduction to features, that's fine too, but it would be useful for us to get a consensus.

Adam mentioned us someday covering building serious applications with jQuery and if/where it fits in there and in that respect, I guess the learning site might become something like our own MDN. It would be great to hear from others about their thoughts on what the learning site should be (content wise) and where it might (or should) sit with respect to the API docs site.

//cc @ajpiano @danheberden @dmethvin @kswedberg