Thread by @unixbigot

Datasheets. The thing ever engineer has to look at in order to use a part. They should not be cryptic crosswords. I should not have to look at the marginalia of a technical drawing on page 63 to find out how the pins are numbered. Inverted. Fucking. Pyramid. 1/♾

Datasheets 2/♾: the patents on I ²C expired LAST CENTURY. You can stop pretending your part uses some novel unnamed “two wire interface” and replace those twenty pages of timing diagrams with “it’s bog-standard I-squared-cee you know the drill [link to the drill]”.

Datasheets 3/♾: part numbers. If your 2mm wide “yoyodyne 69420 ultragadget” is marked only “Q3X”, on the package. MAYBE MENTION THAT SOMEWHERE IN YOUR EIGHTY PAGE DATASHEET. (Pro tip, *page one* is a good spot).

Datasheets 4/♾: why don’t you put a drawing of your part with just pin numbers on page six and then a table giving the names and functions of those pins on pages 20-22. There’s no way you could summarize that on one page.

Datasheets 5/♾: the following are excellent file names for your datasheet download:
1️⃣ datasheet.pdf
2️⃣ download.bin
3️⃣ login_required.html
4️⃣ 123456-902.pdf
5️⃣ haha_you_thought_this_was_a_pdf_but_its_html_that_links_to_a_chain_of_pages_in_which_a_download_link_hides.pdf

Datasheets 6/♾: I really really enjoy scrutinizing two forty-five page datasheets to find out that Yoyodyne 69420-QX and 69420-XQ are in fact the exact same part in different packages. I also enjoy guessing which part of AQX69420WTF8Z is the four digits I need to google.

Datasheets 7/♾: all engineers can easily convert from decimal to binary to hexadecimal in our heads, and we enjoy it so much that your habit of writing binary here and then decimal there and later hexadecimal over there for the same register address or value provides ENDLESS FUN

Datasheets 8/♾ How to use this part:
1️⃣ Connect power and ground
2️⃣ add thirteen capacitors, three transistors and a part whose symbol you don’t even recognize for reasons that are not mentioned anywhere else in this datasheet.

Datasheets 9/♾Did you know that Vec is an obscure synonym for “Ground” used by one Russian chip fan in the 1970s? We include it in our datasheets purely for your edification. Oh and if you do misread and connect it to Vcc by mistake, wave to the magic smoke as it drifts away!

Datasheets 10/♾ Look at this fucking gem. Everything you need to know right on page one. And most of the other things you need are on page two. And there’s a table of contents.

Datasheets 11/♾ Yes, you’re very clever. Your dimensional drawing is zero percent redundant; every critical measurement is provided exactly once and there is nothing printed that could be worked out from first principles. Doing mental arithmetic all day is my jive. Fuck. You.

Datasheets 12/♾: every year a one million dollar prize and the coveted “Gordy” trophy are awarded for the Most Subtle Performce by an Integrated Circuit Designer in Denoting Pin One. Look out for next year’s 2 nanometer dot process!

Datasheets 13/♾ Why not shake things up by picturing your part’s pinout from UNDERNEATH? Because that’s how the engineers will see it: looking up at it, from hell.

Datasheets 14/♾ referring to your run-of-the-mill ordinary part exclusively by your own made-up trademarked term for it helps…what, exactly?

Datasheets 15/♾: it’s not an “application note” if it contains important specification information that is mentioned nowhere in the main datasheet.

Datasheets 16/♾: by all means spend two pages explaining how to convert a raw reading to useful value using all your math-fu. Your command of LaTeX equations is impressive. No, it’s fine I don’t need any examples. Tempt me not with a snippet of Python or pseudocode neither.