HOME — ERIC HOLSCHER Home¶. Welcome to the home of Eric Holscher on the web. I am the co-founder of Read the Docs and Write the Docs, where I work to elevate the status of documentation in the software industry.The main content here is my blog, which covers various topics around documentation, Python, Django, and conference organizing.

FAVORITE BOOKS

One in books that I love is that they take something I’ve intuitively understood, and give me concrete terms and concepts to describe it. So good they can’t ignore you does this in the area of careers and entrepreneurship.. It starts off by explaining why “Follow your passion” is bad advice for folks who want a RÉSUMÉ — ERIC HOLSCHER Role: Co-founder and primary organizer of Portland conference; 3 global conferences, Slack network with 8,000+ members, newsletter with 8,000+ subscribers, meetups on 4 continents

DIGITAL NOMAD GUIDE

Find me online Twitter; GitHub; eric@ericholscher.com; Subscribe RSS. Communities I work in the realm of software documentation. You can find more about the communities I help shepherd below: THE POWER OF SPHINX: INTEGRATING JINJA WITH RST The Extension¶. Most of the power of Sphinx comes from the ability to plug into any part of the documentation building process. Sphinx has an exhaustive list of Sphinx core events, which I recommend reading up on.This extension will use the source-read hook, which fires when the actual RST file is read from the disk.. From there it is the simple matter of taking the source that has been read THE PAC-MAN RULE AT CONFERENCES The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences¶. I firmly believe that conferences can provide a lot of value for people in an industry. Conferences allow people to create a network, which helps them feel integrated in a community and profession. SPHINX ISN’T JUST FOR PYTHON Sphinx isn’t just for Python¶. I have heard a few times over the past couple months that Sphinx is “mainly for Python projects”. This line of thinking makes sense, because Sphinx was created to document Python itself. AN INTRODUCTION TO SPHINX AND READ THE DOCS FOR TECHNICAL Introduction to Sphinx¶. Sphinx is the documentation tool of choice for the Python language community, and increasingly also for other programming languages and tools. It was originally created in 2008 to document the Python language itself.. Over the past eight years, it has turned into a robust and mature solution for software documentation. It includes a number of features that writers HOW I JUDGE THE QUALITY OF DOCUMENTATION IN 30 SECONDS I think this question is telling. Every person has different priorities, and this is a great way to get at them. I have developed quick ways to tell the quality of documentation. WHY YOU SHOULDN’T USE “MARKDOWN” FOR DOCUMENTATION Why You Shouldn’t Use “Markdown” for Documentation¶ “Markdown” is the most commonly used lightweight markup language on the internet. It is great for a subset of tasks, mainly blog posts and commenting. However, lately it has been adopted by the technical writing community as a solution for writing documentation. HOME — ERIC HOLSCHER Home¶. Welcome to the home of Eric Holscher on the web. I am the co-founder of Read the Docs and Write the Docs, where I work to elevate the status of documentation in the software industry.The main content here is my blog, which covers various topics around documentation, Python, Django, and conference organizing.

FAVORITE BOOKS

One in books that I love is that they take something I’ve intuitively understood, and give me concrete terms and concepts to describe it. So good they can’t ignore you does this in the area of careers and entrepreneurship.. It starts off by explaining why “Follow your passion” is bad advice for folks who want a RÉSUMÉ — ERIC HOLSCHER Role: Co-founder and primary organizer of Portland conference; 3 global conferences, Slack network with 8,000+ members, newsletter with 8,000+ subscribers, meetups on 4 continents

DIGITAL NOMAD GUIDE

Find me online Twitter; GitHub; eric@ericholscher.com; Subscribe RSS. Communities I work in the realm of software documentation. You can find more about the communities I help shepherd below: THE POWER OF SPHINX: INTEGRATING JINJA WITH RST The Extension¶. Most of the power of Sphinx comes from the ability to plug into any part of the documentation building process. Sphinx has an exhaustive list of Sphinx core events, which I recommend reading up on.This extension will use the source-read hook, which fires when the actual RST file is read from the disk.. From there it is the simple matter of taking the source that has been read THE PAC-MAN RULE AT CONFERENCES The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences¶. I firmly believe that conferences can provide a lot of value for people in an industry. Conferences allow people to create a network, which helps them feel integrated in a community and profession. SPHINX ISN’T JUST FOR PYTHON Sphinx isn’t just for Python¶. I have heard a few times over the past couple months that Sphinx is “mainly for Python projects”. This line of thinking makes sense, because Sphinx was created to document Python itself. AN INTRODUCTION TO SPHINX AND READ THE DOCS FOR TECHNICAL Introduction to Sphinx¶. Sphinx is the documentation tool of choice for the Python language community, and increasingly also for other programming languages and tools. It was originally created in 2008 to document the Python language itself.. Over the past eight years, it has turned into a robust and mature solution for software documentation. It includes a number of features that writers HOW I JUDGE THE QUALITY OF DOCUMENTATION IN 30 SECONDS I think this question is telling. Every person has different priorities, and this is a great way to get at them. I have developed quick ways to tell the quality of documentation. WHY YOU SHOULDN’T USE “MARKDOWN” FOR DOCUMENTATION Why You Shouldn’t Use “Markdown” for Documentation¶ “Markdown” is the most commonly used lightweight markup language on the internet. It is great for a subset of tasks, mainly blog posts and commenting. However, lately it has been adopted by the technical writing community as a solution for writing documentation. AN INTRODUCTION TO SPHINX AND READ THE DOCS FOR TECHNICAL Introduction to Sphinx¶. Sphinx is the documentation tool of choice for the Python language community, and increasingly also for other programming languages and tools. It was originally created in 2008 to document the Python language itself.. Over the past eight years, it has turned into a robust and mature solution for software documentation. It includes a number of features that writers THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WELCOMING The Importance of Being Welcoming¶. Conferences have been a fundamental part of me becoming a professional developer. Having a network of people you know personally in a professional context is a

huge advantage.

HOW I JUDGE THE QUALITY OF DOCUMENTATION IN 30 SECONDS Permalinks¶. One of the primary uses of documentation is the ability to link information to other people. If your documentation doesn’t have an easy way to link to sections of content on a page, then the

value decreases.

A BETTER JAVASCRIPT WORKFLOW WITH DJANGO The module.exports is similar to Python’s __all__, allowing you to explicitly set your public API.. The require system allows you to factor your code into multiple files. More importantly, this allows for code isolation. I can put logic surrounding setting up event handlers in the events.js file, without having it leak into other sections of the code. BUILDING A DJANGO APP SERVER WITH CHEF: PART 3 Upstart¶. Note: I use upstart because it ships with Ubuntu, so you don’t need to install a separate package.However, it has pretty horrible documentation, with the Stanzas doc probably the best clue as to what it supports. Here is where things get interesting. I spent a bunch of time trying to get gunicorn and upstart to play nicely yesterday night, but it wasn’t working. SEMANTIC MEANING IN AUTHORING DOCUMENTATION Semantic Meaning in Authoring Documentation¶. Semantic Meaning in documentation is the separation of what something is from what it looks like. What we mean and what we display are very different things.. We might want to warn someone in our writing, but BUILDING A DJANGO APP SERVER WITH CHEF: PART 1 Building a Django App Server with Chef: Part 1¶. Alternate title: Fucking Chef, How does it work? When I started looking at Chef, I found it incredibly complex and lacking in fundamental documentation.This is going to be my experience understanding Chef while setting up a single server. INCREDIBLY USEFUL SSH FLAG Incredibly useful SSH flag¶. So at work we have a lot of different django environments, scattered across varies servers. All of this information is kept in a central resource. USING PDB, THE PYTHON DEBUGGER (DJANGO DEBUGGING SERIES Using pdb, the Python Debugger (Django Debugging Series, Part 3)¶ I had a couple of comments about my last post saying that I should be sending all of the screencasts to the aggregator because this is content and isn’t spam. GETTING STARTED WITH PINAX NOTE: This content is a little out of date. Some of the layout might be wrong, but the ideas are still relavent.¶ I went ahead today and figured that I would try out Pinax, seeing as it’s been getting a lot of good press in the Django community lately.The talk from James Tauber at Djangocon was really good, and I certainly recommend

checking it out.

HOME¶

Welcome to the home of Eric Holscher on the web. I am the co-founder of Read the Docs and Write the Docs , where I work to elevate the status of documentation in the software industry. The main content here is my blog, which covers various topics around documentation, Python, Django, and conference organizing. I currently live in Portland, Oregon, and love to explore the outdoors. Whether on bike or foot, I spend as much time as possible out and about, checking out the various beauty that the world holds. Below you can find out more information about me, and the various professional projects I’m a part of.

INFORMATION¶

* About Me

* Speaking

* Consulting

* Interviews

* Favorite Books

* Digital Nomad Guide

ACTIVITIES¶

* Bike Touring

* Backpacking

BLOG ENTRIES¶

* Sep 26, 2019 - Using a Welcome Wagon to Help First-Time Conference

Attendees

* Mar 09, 2018 - One Percent for Open Source * Feb 13, 2018 - Conference Mentorship * Feb 07, 2018 - The post I never published * Jan 04, 2018 - Business questions I’m working on in 2018 * Dec 02, 2017 - Breaking Cliques at Events: The Snowball Rule * Aug 02, 2017 - The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences * Feb 13, 2017 - Documentation is JSON for the Brain * Jan 27, 2017 - “My Code is Self-Documenting” * Nov 12, 2016 - Questions after talks at conferences * Oct 06, 2016 - Semantic Meaning in Authoring Documentation * Sep 24, 2016 - A Selfish Appeal for Documentation * Aug 31, 2016 - Funding Open Source with Marketing Money * Jul 25, 2016 - The Power of Sphinx: Integrating Jinja with RST * Jul 01, 2016 - An introduction to Sphinx and Read the Docs for

Technical Writers

* Mar 15, 2016 - Why You Shouldn’t Use “Markdown” for

Documentation

* Oct 16, 2015 - The Importance of Being Welcoming * May 25, 2015 - Why I’m building a company: Structure * Apr 10, 2015 - Making Read the Docs Sustainable * Oct 24, 2014 - Announcing Read the Docs for Business * Aug 08, 2014 - Read the Docs goes full-time * Feb 27, 2014 - How I Judge the Quality of Documentation in 30

Seconds

* Feb 11, 2014 - Sphinx isn’t just for Python * Dec 31, 2013 - 2013 Year in Review * Dec 23, 2013 - Read the Docs 2013 Stats * Nov 21, 2013 - A Better Javascript Workflow with Django * Nov 11, 2013 - Codes of Conduct, an Organizers Perspective * Nov 04, 2013 - A New Theme for Read the Docs * Oct 24, 2013 - Google Summer of Code Book Sprint 2013 * Oct 08, 2013 - Announcing Grok the Docs * Oct 01, 2013 - Sphinx Live Preview * Sep 30, 2013 - Writing a Beginners Guide to Documentation * Sep 28, 2013 - A letter to an old friend * Sep 25, 2013 - Help me improve documentation * Apr 04, 2013 - Prepping for the Pacific Crest Trail * Jan 28, 2013 - Announcing Write the Docs * Jan 10, 2013 - A Walk in the Woods * Dec 31, 2012 - 2012 Year in Review * Dec 01, 2012 - Interesting projects on Read the Docs: Teaching * Sep 20, 2012 - Help fund Read the Docs * Sep 18, 2012 - The festival that felt like a hug * Jan 22, 2012 - Why Read the Docs matters * Apr 11, 2011 - Read the Docs Update * Jan 23, 2011 - Using Reviewboard with Git * Jan 11, 2011 - Read the Docs Updates * Jan 10, 2011 - Handling Django Settings Files * Nov 17, 2010 - Required Reading * Nov 16, 2010 - Using Haystack to index non-database content * Nov 15, 2010 - Correct commands to check out and update VCS repos * Nov 12, 2010 - Site upgrades * Nov 11, 2010 - Building a Django App Server with Chef: Part 4 * Nov 10, 2010 - Building a Django App Server with Chef: Part 3 * Nov 09, 2010 - Building a Django App Server with Chef: Part 2 * Nov 08, 2010 - Building a Django App Server with Chef: Part 1 * Nov 05, 2010 - Using ZNC, an IRC bouncer * Nov 04, 2010 - Running Hudson matrix builds on multiple machines * Nov 03, 2010 - Django Testing Mailing List * Nov 02, 2010 - Celery Tips * Nov 01, 2010 - Virtualenv Tips * Sep 10, 2010 - Djangocon Talk * Aug 28, 2010 - New features on Read The Docs * Aug 22, 2010 - Lessons Learned From The Dash: Nginx SSI * Aug 21, 2010 - A better webhook for code hosting * Aug 16, 2010 - Announcing Read The Docs * Aug 16, 2010 - Lessons Learned From The Dash: Easy Django

Deployment

* Aug 08, 2010 - Conference Fun * Jun 23, 2010 - Large Problems in Django, Mostly Solved: Delayed

Execution

* Feb 14, 2010 - Django Inspect: A generic introspection API for

Django models

* Feb 06, 2010 - The role of designers in the Django community * Feb 05, 2010 - Large Problems in Django, Mostly Solved:

Documentation

* Jan 07, 2010 - A simple Perl IRCBot * Nov 22, 2009 - Correct way to handle default model fields. * Nov 19, 2009 - Writing Code with Designers * Nov 18, 2009 - Finding Missing Indexes That Django Wants

(Postgres)

* Nov 17, 2009 - Announcing Kong: A server description and deployment testing tool * Nov 16, 2009 - You should stay for the sprints * Nov 13, 2009 - Django Testing Code Coverage * Nov 12, 2009 - The importance of striving for awesome. * Nov 11, 2009 - Large Problems in Django, Mostly Solved: APIs * Nov 10, 2009 - What they didn’t teach me in college * Nov 09, 2009 - Correct way to handle mobile browsers * Nov 06, 2009 - Large Problems in Django, Mostly Solved: Database

Migrations

* Nov 05, 2009 - Adding testing to pip * Nov 03, 2009 - Making Template Tag Parsing Easier * Nov 03, 2009 - Class Based Template Tags * Nov 02, 2009 - Large Problems in Django, Mostly Solved: Search * Oct 15, 2009 - Easily Running the Django Test Suite * Sep 26, 2009 - Hacker Book Club * Sep 23, 2009 - Pretty Django Error Pages * Sep 08, 2009 - Token Testing Talk Slides: Djangocon 2009 * Sep 05, 2009 - Debugging Django in Production Revisited * Jun 29, 2009 - Enable setup.py test in your Django apps * Jun 11, 2009 - Migrating Django Test Fixtures Using South * May 24, 2009 - A playground for Django Template tags and filters * May 05, 2009 - EuroDjangoCon Talk: Testing Django * Apr 20, 2009 - Django’s Summer of Code students announced! * Apr 16, 2009 - Testing AJAX Views in Django * Apr 05, 2009 - Adding Google Analytics to Sphinx Docs * Mar 21, 2009 - Really easy SSH tunneling * Mar 15, 2009 - Twitter Spam * Mar 12, 2009 - Google Summer of Code * Mar 08, 2009 - Pycon and Euro Djangocon * Feb 28, 2009 - Automatically apply patches from Django’s (or

any) Trac

* Feb 15, 2009 - Incredibly useful SSH flag * Jan 29, 2009 - Using rsync with django * Jan 26, 2009 - Django Conventions Project Update * Jan 22, 2009 - Encouraging Web Interaction for University Students * Jan 21, 2009 - Review of Pro Django by Marty Alchin (1/2) * Jan 15, 2009 - Django now has fast tests * Dec 31, 2008 - Year in Review * Dec 03, 2008 - Starting a Django Conventions Project and Reference * Nov 30, 2008 - Post a day in review * Nov 27, 2008 - The value of conventions, aka testmaker for

template tags.

* Nov 26, 2008 - Testmaker 0.2: Rewritten and improved * Nov 22, 2008 - Django Aggregator v2 now has tagging, and you

should too.

* Nov 21, 2008 - Luck and a New Life in Lawrence * Nov 20, 2008 - Gentlemans agreement on Django templates * Nov 17, 2008 - Busy Busy * Nov 16, 2008 - A start to the uber community * Nov 15, 2008 - Debugging Django in Production Environments * Nov 14, 2008 - Should reusable apps have templates? * Nov 13, 2008 - Encouraging Testing in Django * Nov 12, 2008 - The importance of not deleting blog posts (read:

ideas)

* Nov 11, 2008 - Practical Django Testing Examples: Views * Nov 10, 2008 - Announcing Django Crawler and django-test-utils * Nov 09, 2008 - The times, they are a changin * Nov 08, 2008 - The problem with Django’s Template Tags * Nov 07, 2008 - Software that I use: Essentials 2008 * Nov 06, 2008 - Making a Django Uber-Community * Nov 05, 2008 - Introduction to Python/Django tests: Fixtures * Nov 03, 2008 - Introduction to Python/Django testing: Basic Unit

Tests

* Nov 03, 2008 - New Design * Nov 02, 2008 - Python gems of my own * Nov 02, 2008 - Introduction to Python/Django testing: Basic

Doctests

* Nov 01, 2008 - A blog post a day keeps the doctor away * Oct 05, 2008 - Big list of Django tips (and some python tips too) * Sep 18, 2008 - Getting started with Pinax * Sep 12, 2008 - Screencast: Django Command Extensions * Sep 02, 2008 - Using pdb to debug management commands and unit tests (Debugging Django Series,Part 4) * Aug 30, 2008 - Using pdb, the Python Debugger (Django Debugging

Series, Part 3)

* Aug 29, 2008 - Screencast 2: Logging in Django, for fun and profit * Aug 28, 2008 - Screencast: Debugging with the Django Error Page * Aug 14, 2008 - Using Mock objects in Django for testing the

current date

* Aug 06, 2008 - Easily packaging and distributing Django apps with setuptools and easy_install * Jul 26, 2008 - Testmaker .002 (Even easier automated testing in

Django)

* Jul 23, 2008 - Automating tests in Django * Jul 13, 2008 - DjangoCon September 6-7, at Google! * Jul 08, 2008 - Setting up Django and mod_wsgi * Jul 07, 2008 - DjangoCon 2008 * Jul 06, 2008 - Jim Henson before Sesame Street * Jul 03, 2008 - Beatles Lecture * Jul 01, 2008 - Living well * Jun 27, 2008 - Bear Head * Jun 22, 2008 - Things I say all the time * Jun 21, 2008 - JOB!! * Jun 14, 2008 - Lawrence Day 1 * Jun 05, 2008 - Change of RSS address * Jun 02, 2008 - Goodbye East Coast part 1 * May 20, 2008 - Power through conversation * May 07, 2008 - Graduation * Apr 22, 2008 - My Second Poem Ever * Apr 08, 2008 - Browser Login Discovery * Mar 29, 2008 - Predictive text FTW * Mar 27, 2008 - Crazy times * Mar 14, 2008 - All majors are the same * Feb 21, 2008 - Perfect Abstraction * Feb 21, 2008 - Awesome 3d * Feb 21, 2008 - Website Interface Design * Feb 21, 2008 - Why I love the CLI * Feb 20, 2008 - Job hunt * Feb 19, 2008 - Security Vulnerabilities on the Internet * Feb 11, 2008 - Bill Clinton * Feb 10, 2008 - NCUR 22 * Feb 09, 2008 - Another neat ad * Feb 08, 2008 - Sweet ads * Feb 07, 2008 - Work this week * Feb 07, 2008 - Obama & Va * Feb 04, 2008 - Time to use that education * Feb 02, 2008 - Graduate * Jan 29, 2008 - OCR with context * Jan 25, 2008 - My dad was wikipedia * Jan 15, 2008 - Weekend * Jan 12, 2008 - Hackers and Painters * Jan 10, 2008 - America…*sigh* * Jan 09, 2008 - Books to read * Jan 07, 2008 - Code on Launchpad * Jan 06, 2008 - Cool Music Video * Jan 04, 2008 - OpenID FTW * Jan 04, 2008 - Earthquakes in politics * Jan 03, 2008 - Facebook Update * Jan 03, 2008 - Facebook Scrapage * Jan 02, 2008 - Iowa * Dec 31, 2007 - Stanford U * Dec 25, 2007 - Merry Christmas * Dec 21, 2007 - Python Easy Install * Dec 20, 2007 - Browser Tabs * Dec 20, 2007 - Lego Lovers * Dec 18, 2007 - Getting Real * Dec 13, 2007 - Ideas need context * Dec 09, 2007 - First Post * Dec 05, 2007 - Django * Nov 25, 2007 - Schoolwork * Nov 20, 2007 - Last semester in stone * Nov 14, 2007 - Writing Advice? * Nov 13, 2007 - Cool site: archive.org * Nov 04, 2007 - Fall is coming (and good content) * Nov 01, 2007 - Firefox Extensions I Use * Oct 30, 2007 - Digg/Wordpress plugin ideas * Oct 17, 2007 - UMW Blog Ring * Oct 10, 2007 - Goal * Mar 06, 2007 - Network KVM * Feb 18, 2007 - People * Feb 07, 2007 - Music * Jan 28, 2007 - Updating website * Jan 09, 2007 - iPhone * Jan 07, 2007 - Good Software is SO hard to find..

Eric

Holscher

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* eric@ericholscher.com

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I work in the realm of software documentation. You can find more about the communities I help shepherd below:

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