Re: IndexedDB, what were the issues? How do we stop it from happening again?

> Or, thinking of it from the perspective of a working group chair, and then
> again from the perspective of someone who teaches developers simple stuff
> about APIs, it would help with testing. It would also provide good material
> to assist uptake, at least to the point where "end-user developers" (by
> which I mean simple folk like me) could have meaningful conversations with
> people who can make their own libraries that are good enough for other
> users (by which I mean clever folk like Yehuda), where the "end users"
> could explain their problems and the designers could clearly explain
> whether this is an issue in the API they have created, or just a missing
> bit of library code that "can probably be done in a couple of days"...
> which is of course an invitation to spend the couple of days and prove it.
>
> [...]
>
>  For the bad design bit, well, we've been missing a manual on how to write
>> good APIs for a long time.
>>
>
> Yes. An important aspect, as Marcos noted, is to identify what bits of
> "good" APIs are generally good, and what bits of them are good in the
> specific case of that API. And likewise, what things are not good.
>
>
While there probably are some good general rules, I think this is somewhat
like saying "good paintings are 20% yellow" or something.  The best API is
the one the most people are able to feel comfortable and productive with -
they'll know it when they use it. It seems that really the best way to know
that is to get people involved and using early (maybe even competing) and
forward compatible versions of them before they go so far as to become a
standard....

I really think that the success of any one of them ultimately has very
little to do with how many people created it, what process they used,
whether it is high or low level, etc. and more about the simple "will
people find this useful/intuitive and want to use it".  I'm not suggesting
it's just wild-west free-for-all or anything, just that those are important
components of what I think a really excellent solution looks like.
 Something that can provide data to those questions.


-- 
Brian Kardell :: @briankardell :: hitchjs.com