I have a gem, tabulo that is getting to the point where the README is pretty long, and contains more than just a bare introduction to the gem. It really acts as a user manual for the gem. I like to have a README that's pretty substantial, as I think this is much more accessible than just pointing to the rubydocs and leaving it at that. However, it bothers me that there is no sidebar navigation—meaning readers have to keep jumping back to the top to see the contents. It also feels like the README is getting too long for just one page.
Lately I've been looking at GitBook and wondering whether to migrate the content of the README there. It provides a very nicely formatted layout with sidebar navigation, as well as a prompt that lets users easily suggest edits to the documentation. See the GitBook for FoalTS, as one example.
My question is: Do the readability and navigability benefits of putting the user guide in GitBooks (or something similar) outweigh the "accessibility" benefits (for want of a better word) of having the user guide simply be the GitHub project README? Having everything in the README means that once users (or potential users) land on the GitHub repo, the "complete" guide to using the gem is "zero clicks" away; it can be read through continually simply by scrolling down. But it's not as navigable or as slick as GitBook. I'm trying to weigh these things up. If anyone has any experience, thoughts or feedback on this, that would be greatly appreciated.
GitBook - An interesting (and useful) use of Git
Gitbook is engaging in unethical behavior.
What does your documentation for agile sprints look like? I am using Gitbook, but I am unsure as to exactly how I should integrate my Github commits with my Gitbook and the general workflow of documentation. The documentation is only being used by me and my co-founder, both of us are coding.
Try to use the branches in GitHub for document versions is one approach I’ve used. Ie: “branch-docs-v1.0” and gitbook will allow you to show version of documentation if you need that.
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