←back to thread

Everything I know about good API design

(www.seangoedecke.com)
428 points ahamez | 1 comments | 24 Aug 25 19:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
Show context
runroader ◴[24 Aug 25 22:41 UTC] No.45008463[source]▶
I think the only thing here that I don't agree with is that internal users are just users. Yes, they may be more technical - or likely other programmers, but they're busy too. Often they're building their own thing and don't have the time or ability to deal with your API churning.

If at all possible, take your time and dog-food your API before opening it up to others. Once it's opened, you're stuck and need to respect the "never break userspace" contract.

replies(3): >>45008497 #>>45009503 #>>45016822 #
1. Supermancho ◴[25 Aug 25 01:57 UTC] No.45009503[source]▶
With internal users, you likely have instrumentation that allows you to contact and have those users migrate. You can actually sunset api versions, making API versioning an attractive solution. I've both participated in API versioning and observed it employed in organizations that don't use it by default as a matter of utility.