The {documentation} tag

Question

I'm confused about the documentation tag. Its tag wiki excerpt states:

You should tag questions as {documentation} when they address issues related to the writing of documenting TeX packages, or to packages designed for documenting TeX code, e.g., ltxdoc.

So, as I understand this, the tag is about how to write documentation (e.g., about dtx files).

On the other hand, most of the questions tagged documentation are actually about finding documentation. Further, manual is a synonym of documentation.

What is the correct use? Should we split the tag into two?

(Compare also books, tutorials and Tags about documentation.)

[Sorry for this shameless way to move this question up, but I was just about to ask the same thing, and I cannot offer a bounty on meta (which I would gladly do if I could). tohecz]

Answer 1

This still hasn’t been worked out and I (doncherry) was about to ask the same question as well.

Status quo

as of 2014-09-20:

• books: {books} is for questions which deal with books about TeX, LaTeX and other topics of this site. […]
• tutorials: Should be used when asking about obtaining tutorials, how-tos, introductory books etc. For questions about writing such material, use the tag {documentation} instead.
• documentation: {documentation} is about the writing of *TeX package documentation and packages designed for documenting *TeX code, e.g. ltxdoc.
• manuals: synonym of documentation

Problems

• None of the opinions at Tags about documentation is followed regarding documentation, although most of the top questions are not about the writing of documentation, but about existing (or not) pieces of documentation.
• If we’re hypothetically accepting the current wiki meaning of documentation, then:
  • manuals shouldn’t be a synonym of documentation.
  • We don’t have a tag for package documentation – not writing it, but e.g. obtaining it, about some specific piece of documentation …

Proposal

• Keep the de facto-meaning of documentation and change its wiki accordingly
• Create a new tag documentation-writing and retag the few questions where it’s necessary

I personally would rather have manuals as a synonym of tutorials, but this didn’t seem to be the consensus at Tags about documentation, so we can keep that the way it is.