Designing Accessible APIs
summary
Two practical rules govern API design: be kind to future self and be kind to users. Use platform types (for example use DataInterval not custom Time), prefer clarity over clever abstractions, and protect behavior with unit tests and runtime assertions like dispatch_precondition. Make integration trivial—one-click install, default the common case, accept optionals, avoid transitive dependencies, keep deprecated shims, gate new features so they’re zero cost until used, and never crash so apps retain control.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:26Accessibility
- 2:41Being Kind
- 3:06Writing APIs as though they will last forever
- 3:54What is the minimum amount of work to do
- 5:16Duplication
- 6:23Unit Tests
- 9:13Frameworks
- 10:05OneClick Install
- 10:52Platform conventions
- 11:13Common types
- 12:08Default case
- 13:38Flexibility
- 15:02Framework Authors
- 15:12Strong Opinions
- 16:37Expressing the API
- 18:39Avoiding transitive dependencies
- 21:25Using new features
- 22:35Do not crash
- 24:36Empathy
