[mikestew]

hire entire teams whose only jobs were to write documentation

In contrast, I've always found Microsoft's documentation to be incredible.

I don't know how Apple and Google work, but as a long-time-ago MSFT employee, I can tell you it is because they have entire teams. Chain-of-command, senior-level, leads, managers (don't know if there's such a thing as User Ed VP/Director, though) the whole works, like Microsoft kinda took it seriously or something. Hence my ranking of docs:

1. Microsoft: could be better, but you're going to have an easy time finding worse. No, they're actually pretty damned good. When I worked there, for instance, there was a big push that example code will be secure. The mantra was "sample code becomes production code". APIs have close-to-real-world examples of usage. "Could be better"? Eh, I don't know what I'd improve, frankly.

2. Back before they got really big, I'd say about Apple's docs, "does the job; it's not Microsoft-quality, but they don't have Microsoft resources, now do they?" Umm, that's not true anymore, and I think the quality has gone down since.

3. Google: just use Stack Overflow. The docs are just going to frustrate you with their incompleteness and outdateness.

[kbenson]

I winder how much of Microsoft's focus on documentation and having full teams to produce it was also spurred by the nature of their enterprise business and the whose ecosystem of certification and training it supported (which in turn supported Microsoft in a cyclical nature). Microsoft has a whole set of of official test prep and training material, certified trainers, etc.

Even if the documentation department never made a profit themselves, I imagine being able to point to some revenue and it being an important part of the overall business strategy kept it as feeling fairly important to most execs.

[ethbro]

It also likely traces back to support.

In that Microsoft has it, Google doesn't, and Apple... magic?

But if you're going to run a competent support org, you need to have high-quality, easily-accessible documentation. Because you're not going to know anything about {insert random thing support ticket is asking about}.

And if you've already created those docs for internal use, why not simply make them public?

[userbinator]

I can fully believe MS had entire documentation teams, but looking at their newer docs, and much of what they've done with the old ones, it seems like those teams have mostly disappeared.

[moron4hire]

Definitely. Good documentation is hard work, a full-time project all on its own. It drives me nuts how many "hackers" think of it as an afterthought.