some links to "how to design an API" texts/movies

[Patrick Mueller <pm...@gmail.com>]

I've been meaning to do this for a while, finally remembered.  I typically
send out a similar list of links to colleagues when we venture down the
path of "creating APIs".

Jim des Rivières has been the "API wonk" for Eclipse since the project
started.  He has a nice set of links available concerning "API design", at
the Eclipse wiki:

    http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central

Many of these are Java-centric, and as such some bits don't apply to some
of our code - the JavaScript code in particular - though we do of course
have Java code in our stack, and things that are close-enough-for-jazz (eg,
ObjC).

Here are some cherry-picked links I thought were timely given recent
discussions:

- http://wiki.eclipse.org/Evolving_Java-based_APIs
- http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/Deprecation_Policy
-
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Architecture_Council/Metadata_File_Naming_Recommendations
- http://www.infoq.com/presentations/effective-api-design

I don't know that I've watched the Josh Bloch presentation (the last link,
it's a 1hr movie), but I have read his "Effective Java: Programming
Language Guide" book -
http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-Programming-Language-Series/dp/0201310058.
IIRC, the book is outstanding, has a lot to say about good API design,
and is some-what applicable across other languages.  I guess I must have it
lying around somewhere, with a decade+'s worth of dust on it ...

-- 
Patrick Mueller
http://muellerware.org