While building DevPortals.tech, I ran into a common documentation site challenge: how do you organize sidebar navigation when you want some content to appear in a specific order (like overview pages) while still automatically including new files as you create them?
This is the kind of practical problem that comes up constantly when building documentation sites, and the solution isn’t always obvious from the docs.
Documentation frameworks are not just technical choices — they reflect cultural shifts in how we think about developer experience.
For years, reStructuredText (reST) powered serious technical documentation, especially in the Python and scientific communities.
Today, Markdown and MDX dominate modern developer portals. Why? Let’s explore this shift.
As a senior technical writer who’s spent years managing enterprise documentation platforms, I’ve seen the pain points that drive teams to migrate from proprietary solutions to open-source alternatives.
This site chronicles that journey and provides practical guidance for teams making similar transitions.
