Re^2: API complexity measures

OK - it might be hard to measure in the general situation - but sure there are cases where you can say that "this API is more complex than that one" in some objective way?

Ad. consistency - this is another very interesting subject. How would you argument that one interface is more consistent than another one?

My question is actually mostly about communication - what I want is to have a vocabulary and references to discuss those matters in some informed way. I understand that it might be very difficult - that is why I asked for references instead of expecting ready made answers.

Comment on Re^2: API complexity measures

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Re^3: API complexity measures by GrandFather (Saint) on Jun 10, 2008 at 21:30 UTC
A trivial (but very important) example of consistency in an interface is to always pass the same parameters in the same order and, as far as possible, match the order to any relevant prior art. For example: if your API provides a number of move and copy related elements, you might ensure that they are all `(target, source, length)`. To the extent that an API is consistent in the way it manages parameters, conceptual units, data structures and so on the API is consistent. 'Orthogonal' is often used and is a related concept. Perl is environmentally friendly - it saves trees	[reply] [d/l]

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Re^3: API complexity measures
by GrandFather (Saint) on Jun 10, 2008 at 21:30 UTC

A trivial (but very important) example of consistency in an interface is to always pass the same parameters in the same order and, as far as possible, match the order to any relevant prior art.

For example: if your API provides a number of move and copy related elements, you might ensure that they are all (target, source, length).

To the extent that an API is consistent in the way it manages parameters, conceptual units, data structures and so on the API is consistent. 'Orthogonal' is often used and is a related concept.

Perl is environmentally friendly - it saves trees

[reply]
[d/l]