Developer documentation for software application

Question

I have finished the user manual as suggested in the accepted answer here. However, for the developer documentation of my application, other than briefly mentioning the topics on the following:

1. purpose of why this application needs to be made in the first place
2. libraries, SDKs, and APIs used
3. major components of application in terms of the windowing blocks, and types of user controls and settings offered in the application for simulation operation: details in implementation and UI
4. major algorithms and message handling mechanisms in the application

I'm not sure if I'm missing any major items that a developer would want to know about my application, assuming no prior knowledge of this program exists. It would be great to hear some comments. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I always like to see a database table diagram. It can realy cut down on the learning curve when looking at existing code.

EDIT
I always like to include a "how to debug" section. This would include any special utilities that I wrote during development that I used to debug issues. It would also include the location and info on any application/error logs.

Answer 2

I like what you have so far. I'd add two things off the top of my head.

If this is a coporate application that will be supported later...

• Where it is installed (server, end users workstations, etc)

• exceptional decisions made in the design (for example, we did something in a way that is inefficient as far as database design is concerned because it allowed us to meet such and such a business need.

IN short, it's easy to read code and see what it does, but for anything that is not straightforward or easy to understand, busniess reasons for decisions that migh look odd later are very helpful.

Answer 3

"Cookbook" style examples that illustrate recommended usage for common scenarios, including unit testing.

Schemas or other format descriptions for any input or output files or data streams.

Database schema description/diagrams.

Available customization points.