Lessons From Becoming an SDK Developer
summary
A year of work on PSPDFKit’s PDF SDK and its companion App Store app yields concrete rules: favor Objective‑C for binary SDKs until Swift ABI stabilizes, support distribution via CocoaPods Carthage and Swift Package Manager, invest in robust tests and first‑class documentation, and run public channels so knowledge isn’t siloed. Empathy, measured as making integration fast and error messages actionable, drives API and UI choices. Patience pays: fewer rushed releases, fewer broken integrations, and support threads turn into product improvements.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (11)
- 0:00Start
- 7:05The lessons I've learned
- 7:36Having empathy is...
- 8:12If someone is trying to use your product...
- 8:49Saving time
- 9:57Helping out
- 11:25Designing...
- 12:45Relevant questions...
- 15:23Distinguish between user errors and programmer errors
- 19:07Patience
- 20:39Tips to reach zen
related talks
32mBest Practices in SDK Development
46mHow Open Source Development Can Make You A Better Developer
24mOpen Source & Swift
34mWhy SDK Docs Matter — And What I’m Doing About It!
32mHow to successfully shift from app development to SDK development
22mBest Practices When Building Mobile SDKs
53mHow not to fuckup with building SDK and make clients happy
45mSwift, Frameworks & Modules, Learnings from CocoaPods