Tagged: api

Actions, Objects, and Context

Nouns

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Nouns describe things: objects.

  • The noun itself carries some description of the thing: “rabbit”
  • That description can be extended through adjectives: “dark rabbit”

Nouns have a limited context. They give you a concept of a thing at a particular snapshot in time. Without more context, they are limited.

Think of full sentences:

  • car
    • What does this mean? It doesn’t convey much information without more context.
    • If you Google “car”, you get a lot of very broad results – but does it help you solve your problem?
  • move car
    • Full context, assuming a car can move. Grammatically limited, but gives a broader idea.
    • You can Google “move car” and it gives very specific, contextually useful results.

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Building APIs, Part 1: Halting-Driven Development

Far too often, we developers go to solve a problem and find ourselves in the mindless drudgery of writing boilerplate. Often, this boilerplate can distract us from the bigger picture of what we’re trying to accomplish.

This is a blog-ized version of a talk I gave recently. The talk was an interactive experience which doesn’t translate directly to text, but I’ll attempt to convey the same concepts.

If I fail, just remember: It’s December! Go play in the snow!

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