Quickstarts
Context
All QuickStarts and README’s try to get a developer started as soon as possible—but there aren’t any industry standards for how that can be achieved.
Acceptance test: Developers can set themselves up to work on the code with the required suite of tools (tests, linters, etc.), without assistance.
Guides
The two most effective ways to “QuickStart” a developer:
Include the basics with some language-agnostic commands that can be run immediately. In the case of an API, this can be done using curl or Postman and lets the developer get their feet wet, with no setup necessary.
Shorten the time to a first “hello world” with things like SDKs, wrappers, or even packages with sample projects, paired with a short tutorial.
The more steps involved in a QuickStart, the fewer developers will try their hand at it. On the other hand, the more specific a QuickStart is to a developer’s use case, the more likely they are to see its relevant value.