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20 API Paradoxes by [Jaroslav Tulach, Jeff Sullins, Professor Walrus]

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Jaroslav Tulach

20 API Paradoxes Kindle Edition

by Jaroslav Tulach (Author), Jeff Sullins (Editor), Professor Walrus (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

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Just as there is a difference between describing a single house or an entire universe, there is a difference between writing code and producing an API! No matter how much we may know already, there is still much to be explored. Inevitably, we will hit something unexpected, something paradoxical—which, rather paradoxically, is perfectly natural! But why?

Every individual has a knowledge horizon. Objects close to us appear clearly, and as they recede toward the horizon, they become indistinct. What lies beyond the horizon is unknown, and yet we know there is something there. As our knowledge of the world increases, this horizon becomes more distant, and yet we continue to explore. It’s a phenomenon as ineffably human as Edmund Hillary’s “because it is there” reason for climbing Everest.

We test the limits of our horizon, we look around corners, and perhaps we find something bigger, faster, or more beautiful than we’ve ever known before. But sometimes, we find contradictions, as Darwin did when he explored the finches of the Galapagos Islands. His findings challenged orthodoxy, what he thought he knew.

Darwin’s observations were so paradoxical, that it was decades before he published his conclusions as “On the Origin of Species.” The whole process of scientific inquiry is based on our need to find answers to seemingly inexplicable questions, and as each old paradox falls to reason, we find new ones popping up at the edges of our horizon.

The world of software development and API design is no different in this respect. The more complex our systems, the more likely we are to bump into the limits of our knowledge. Our world is full of paradoxes waiting to be discovered and explained; it’s as natural as the process of evolution!

Length: 148 pages

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Page Flip: Enabled

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Product details

ASIN : B009NNXPES
Publisher : WalrusInk (October 1, 2012)
Publication date : October 1, 2012
Language: : English
File size : 1233 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Not Enabled
Print length : 148 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,867,156 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,146 in Software Development (Kindle Store)
- #6,281 in Software Development (Books)

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vrto

Paradoxes you probably haven't thought of before

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012

Verified Purchase

Honestly I've never been the biggest fan of the original API Design book from the same author, because I didn't quite like the examples and weird language (grammatically correct, but very strange, abstract). So when I discovered that there is new one, I wasn't quite sure whether I should go for it.

This book is different though and I am glad that I bought it. It's much shorter (I read it during my subway rides to the work in two weeks or so) and chapters are great mixture of comprehensiveness and brevity. Each chapter introduces an interesting paradox of API design and it's described in the way you probably haven't thought of yet. Some of these paradoxes where much more interesting for me (Coolness vs. Cost, Backward Compatibility, Callers and Providers, DSLs ...) than other ones, but I am sure that every developer will appreciate something else. But since it has 20 distinct chapters, you can just skip ones you're not quite interested in.

So compared to the previous one, I feel like this is an improvement. If you happen to be API designer, then it's no-brainer. If you happen to develop standard enterprise software then you probably have greater flexibility to redesign your APIs and you don't have to think so much about things like backwards compatibility etc. But I'd still say that information provided in this book would be useful to you.

I am giving it 4 out of 5 stars, because some of the weirdness from the original API Design book also leaked into this one, but note that this is very subjective opinion.

10 people found this helpful

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Leo

A great book about API ideas

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

A great book about API ideas. The author brings cases related to API development, and states clearly the differences between building API and building other kind of software. I recommend this book. The only observation I have is that External References section in each Paradox should have other references than the author's wiki page.

One person found this helpful