User manuals not derivable from user interfaces

[louis-langholtz]

Expected/Desired Behavior or Experience:

User documentation can be generated automatically from each user interface.

Actual Behavior:

Software development is completely separated from user documentation even though user documentation is essentially a spoken language explanation of nothing else but the user experience with a particular user interface. So coders write the program in the programming language and then documentation writers write the program in a spoken language.

D.R.Y.

As programmers we generally appreciate the sentiment of the D.R.Y. principal: Don't Repeat Yourself. So why do we accept that for user documentation?

A Novel Idea?

I have searched for user interface libraries that are designed for automatically deriving user documentation but have found nothing on this. If nothing else, I haven't found a sequence of terms that can recognize such a UI library's design. Instead I find hits related to tools for writing user documentation.

Changes Proposed:

I don't think it'd be that hard though to make a few changes to a UI like Dear ImGUI like:

1. Augment the user interfaces so it can additionally have a linear traversal sequence like how a book would describe how to use the program.
2. Add a function that traversed this sequence and generated a hierarchical document with the contents of the individual name, hover, and other context sensitive help information units.

Related Issues:

• Issue Rewrite manual as online user guide. #20: Rewrite manual as online user guide.