Understanding the Art of API Design
Building Interfaces for Humans on Earth
In the rigorous and binary world of Software Engineering, API Design, Architecture & Code Quality stick out as more of an Art than a Science - implying that they need to be gradually improved, rather than memorized.
But where the metrics of Code Quality are usually interacted with quite frequently by even Junior Engineers (in Code Reviews), API Design & Architecture are usually left to more experienced Developers, making learning about them more difficult.
In this talk we highlight different strategies and metrics for developing, improving & evaluating APIs - but also the quantum-limits where the cultural context of the target audience starts becoming the decider between good and bad decisions.
Christoph Stiller
I'm a Software Engineer from Germany, who enjoys building complex technical stuff - preferrably far away from end-users and as close as possible to other developers. I enjoy delving into new topics, researching, testing ideas and building things from scratch - which has allowed me to work on a ton of different libraries & projects throughout my career, including Core Libraries, Video & Image Codecs, Anti-Tampering Tools, Serialization, Data Compression & Cryptography.
In my day-job I oversee two teams of Senior Engineers at Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, in my spare-time I work on Graphics Programming & high-speed Compression Algorithms.