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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy?
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To: Scott C. Lemon who wrote (28886)11/11/1999 5:43:00 PM
From: jwright  Read Replies (1) of 42771
 
Scott my intention is not to start a verbal dispute. I just gave some examples.

I do have the belief though that anyone creating an API should spend the time up front to architect their service
and document the API. Sure it takes more work doing it this way when everyone wants feature xyz yesterday. But in my experience the work done upfront will yield higher benefits later down the road. An API not thoroughly thought out is probably an API that will be forever revised or horrors lead to more API's to make up for the formers inadequacies. I believe that an API should be architected and documented without writing a single line of code. Then and only then should it be coded. After coded the developer should test and use the API. Its amazing when you actually use the API that some of its shortcomings come to light. The last thing you want to do is design an API that is confusing and difficult to use. Only after you have gone through these steps should the API be published for others to use whether that be internally or externally.

To me this thought process is the difference between an engineer and a programmer. So in my mind if everybody followed these guidelines an API will always be documented but maybe just not exposed for others to use. Sadly I don't think this is the case in our industry in that too many API's are designed on the fly without much thought put into them.

Anyway one man's opinion.

Jimmy
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