Characteristics of a Good API

In: Uncategorized

11 Oct 2010

I was recently watching a Goggle Tech Talk titled How To Design A Good API and Why it Matters. Joshua Block had this great summary that I wanted to share …

Characteristics of a Good API
- Easy to learn
- Easy to use even w/o docs
- Hard to misuse
- Easy to read and maintain code that uses it
- Sufficiently powerful to satisfy reqs
- Easy to evolve
- Appropiate to audience

Recently, I’ve had innumerable decision points for a library that I’m working on. I’m hoping that turning these characteristics into questions will help me improve the code.