Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Diego Mijelshon — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:11:14 GMT

If I understood correctly, applying laws 1, 2 and 3, the best class library in the world has:
one namespace
with one type
that has one member
with one parameter.

Or a member without parameters
or no members
or just an empty class library.

Sorry, I couldn't resist :-)

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

tzagotta — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:57:49 GMT

I think you are expressing a pretty cynical or jaded view of API design. The theme of these laws is "less is more" - but the tension is that at the same time we know that less is less. In other words, usability is a function of both learnability (less is more) and functionality (less is less, or more is more). Therefore, usability is probably more like a curve that starts at zero, climbs up as more stuff is added, but converges at some kind of maximum, or at a minimum, has diminishing marginal returns.

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

kcwalina — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 02:23:02 GMT

These are fair comments; I should have clarified what I mean by "usability." When I say "usability," I mean "how easy to use the library is". Overall goodness (utility?) of a library is some combination of usability and functionality.

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Skip Sailors — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:19:20 GMT

In summary, write the least code that meets the requirements. If a package with no namespaces, no types, and no members works for the client, ship it!

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Norman Sasono — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:41:39 GMT

Note that KC focuses on API or publicly accessible parts (Type, Member, etc) of a framework or library. It doesn't deal much with the internal object model of the framework or library.

Internally, the public Types or Members of a framework or library may delegates the works to other internal or private Types or Members; Adapter objects, Command Objects, Strategy Objects, etc... just like the long live OO design.

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Sam — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:28:06 GMT

I was wondering if you could recommend any additional reading material (online or offline)that goes into the details of good API design?

I come from a web dev background and I'm moving more & more into the web services arena with C# so this sort of area is pretty new to me and I'd like to make sure my work is as clean as possible.

Cheers.

Link Roundup

Life, Universe and Everything according to Dirk — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:30:11 GMT

Here's one more collection of links.&nbsp; It took me quite a while, and I threw out 90% of the links...

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Rushabh — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:12:30 GMT

WOW. This is so, so, so true, and succint and precise.

I feel that every developer should take the "laws" print it out and stick it on a wall in front of her monitor. (I certainly did)

Thanks Krzysztof!

Krzysztof??Ts Laws of API Design

IWebThereforeIAm — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:41:50 GMT

Krzysztof Cwalina's Laws of API Design...

re: Krzysztof’s Laws of API Design

Robert — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:49:52 GMT

I'd like another one: The usability of an API is directly related to the quality of its documentation which is expressed in the length of sentences and the number of substantives per sentence. Err, I mean, write the documentation for programmers, not for lawyers.