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@philsturgeon
Last active October 14, 2015 20:46
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Talk: What They Should Tell You About API Development

As a refinement to his previously published book, the author of "Building APIs You Won't Hate" found that API books and training tends to introduce documentation, testing and caching as an after-thought, as if these are not important. However, some new experiences have shown that API development works best when these items are thought out first, as well as including a strong pragmatic approach to ensure the API solves real problems without getting stuck on the theory of how to "properly" create it.

Other pragmatic talking points include: Why and how documentation first can stop your team(s) from getting violent, when is REST not what you want, why is hypermedia sometimes a distraction, convenient ways to avoid versions in your API or at least postpone it, and comprehensive but simple endpoint integration testing beyond trivial examples.

@adamculp
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Maybe something more inline with:

As a refinement to his previously published book, the author of "Building APIs You Won't Hate" found that API books and training tend to introduce documentation, testing and caching as an after-thought, as if these are not important. However, some new experiences have shown that API development works best when these items are thought out first, as well as including a strong pragmatic approach to ensure the API solves real problems without getting stuck on the theory of how to "properly" create it.

Other pragmatic talking points include: Why and how documentation first can stop your team(s) from getting violent, when is REST not what you want, why is hypermedia sometimes a distraction, convenient ways to avoid versions in your API or at least postpone it, and comprehensive but simple endpoint integration testing beyond trivial examples.

@philsturgeon
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I'm just gonna copy and paste that over the top of what I had

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