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by evmar 4032 days ago
It looks like this document is a work in progress. Were you looking for feedback on the document?

I have used build systems like this (and webpack) so I think I am the sort of person you're looking to win over.

The heavy use of bolding makes this read like a pyramid scam and made it hard for me to take it seriously.

In all documentation, my main feedback is: the more words you use, the less you're respecting your reader. Your goal should be to wordsmith your text down to convey the maximal information in the least space.

You spend a lot of words talking about things about your product rather than talking about your product itself. I was also flabbergasted to discover that popular build systems are not incremental but it'd be more useful to just highlight the distinction and move on. I think it's ok to include a bit of that in your blurb, but even in chapter three you're saying stuff like "We’ve been preaching JS modules for six years" (again with the superfluous bold) which is irrelevant to someone looking to understand what your system does.

For another example, you're asking your users to read three paragraphs of "should I use a skeleton" discussion before ever even giving them any insight into whether your system will work for them. I think you could shave that section down to a sentence or two: (1) to get started, I recommend [X]; (2) more experienced users will prefer a skeleton via the [Y] command [link here to the full documentation].

Writing useful documentation is really hard. Good luck.

3 comments

Thanks for feedback! We'll adjust some wording. We are always looking for ways to improve the docs / product.
I agree strongly with everything here. I'm a fan of Brunch and would use it again if I ever work on another project where it'd be relevant, but if it wasn't for that I would have instantly written off Brunch after reading this introduction.
Yep. Way, way, way too verbose. Trim it by 90%.