[abetusk]

For me, an example is worth 10 pages of documentation. The documentation is good for reference but only after you understand the ideas behind it.

One of the biggest criteria I have for using a library is whether they have a rich set of examples to draw from.

[fdsfsafasfdas]

Conversely, after the initial struggle getting the ideas behind it, examples are worthless and documentation is king.

[abetusk]

Sometimes. Examples are good at giving concrete working code to use as a basis but they only express a few ideas. Documentation will let you understand the different pieces so you can build what you like.

Both are beneficial for different scenarios. I find I use examples much more often but when examples fail, documentation is necessary.

[franciscop]

Good documentation has tons of examples! For me the gold documentation is jQuery. When I didn't know enough JS the beginning was cryptical but the examples below made it, when I was experienced I could just read the beginning for the footprint.