Aphorisms of API design

Time slot: 
March 8th, 3:15 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: 
Sheraton 4 & 5
Track: 
Coder
Experience: 
Intermediate

Code that talks only to itself is not useful to anyone. Code that enables other code magnifies its power 10-fold.

But how do we enable other code, and those who write it? What makes a module extensible? What is that vague extra something that turns merely extensible code into an API, a library, and a cornerstone of other systems? How do we harness that power for ourselves?

Let us examine the Aphorisms of Good API design, and the 8-Fold Path of API Nirvana.

This session goes beyond how to write modules well to cover the question of how to write modules that spawn other modules and innovation by Coding for the Future.

Video at archive.org.

Intended audience: 

Module developers who want to write not just good code but code other developers will want to use.

Site builders and evaluators who want to know how to tell if a module is "doing it the right way".

Site Architects who want to know what modules are likely to be extensible in the future rather than evolutionary dead ends.

Questions answered by this session
Question 1: 
How do I structure my code for extensibility?
Question 2: 
How do I structure my module to be easy for other modules to extend?
Question 3: 
Why should I think about the future? I have a problem to solve right now!
Question 4: 
How do I know if I'm "doing it right"?
Question 5: 
When is the best API the API that I don't write?
Aphorisms of API design has been selected and voting is closed.

Comments

empty minutes

Hey Crell,
there are some empty minutes at the beginning of the video. Maybe you want to re-upload?

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