Chapter 2 · Practice 4 of 4
Learn to navigate the reference docs, not just the tutorial
Why it matters
Tutorials teach the main path. Day-to-day work needs the reference: the API docs, the standard library, the configuration options. Being fast at finding answers in the reference is one of the most valuable skills you can build early.
Practise it deliberately:
- When you use a function, open its reference page and read the parameters, return values and errors.
- Learn the structure of the docs: where the standard library is, where guides live, where the changelog is.
- Learn the local tools:
go doc,pydoc,cargo doc --open, or your editor's hover documentation.
The goal is to answer most of your own questions in a minute, from the source of truth.
Do
- Open the reference page for each new function you use
Avoid
- Relying only on search results and summaries for API details
Example
# Read documentation from the terminal
go doc net/http.Client
python -m pydoc json.dumps
cargo doc --open # builds and opens docs for your project and its dependencies