Chapter 2. Designing Beautiful APIs
As developers, we experience the difference between good and bad programmatic interfaces every single day. Some modules we work with seem to speak right to us, clearly expressing their role in our project in a loud, confident voice. Others mumble nonsense and occasionally freak out on us in ways weâd never expect. In many ways, our code is only as good as its application programming interface (API). Good APIs provide exactly what we need, in the way we need it. Bad APIs confuse us and make us jump through hoops to get things working, pushing us one step closer to the dreaded âBig Rewrite.â Ruby provides the tools to build beautifully clear interfaces, but these same tools can produce chaos and disarray when placed in misguided hands.
In this chapter, weâll take a look at the infrastructure Ruby provides to help you design solid interfaces. Weâll examine both the technical details and the motivation behind the various different approaches, allowing you to see both the how and why thatâs involved in designing âRubyishâ APIs. Weâll begin by looking through a practical example of API design from a real project, and then move on to more specific tips and tricks. Along the way, youâll gain both conceptual and technical understanding of how to design suitable APIs for your Ruby projects.
Designing for Convenience: Ruportâs Table() feature
In Ruby Reports (Ruport), virtually all of our users will need to work with tabular data at ...
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