
Build APIs - johns
http://blog.jamiesonbecker.com/post/21357486997/build-apis
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cek
I wrote the original that Jamieson is commenting on.

He clearly "gets it" and I was going to say "amen" to his post until I got to
the part about how Facebook and Apple did a public API first. They didn't.
Instead they focused on end user value first (the app) and THEN once they had
traction they exposed APIs publicly (the platform).

There are tons of examples of this formula working, but very few (if any!)
examples of pure platforms/APIs being massively successful (dev tools &
frameworks don't count).

Please read this for more of my perspective on this point
[http://ceklog.kindel.com/2011/08/24/be-either-an-app-or-a-
pl...](http://ceklog.kindel.com/2011/08/24/be-either-an-app-or-a-platform-not-
both/)

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jamiesonbecker
Thanks johns!

tl;dr:

1) Eat your own dogfood. Use your API to build your app. If you can't do that,
your API (and app) is borken.

2) API's are a conversation.* If you don't build them, the conversation will
continue without you. Somewhere else.

EDIT: be sure that building an API is incidental to your application. It's NOT
your app, right? Just use it as a tool to build your app. Like test-driven
development (if you're into that)

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jamiesonbecker
cek is definitely right, but the point that I'm trying to make is that API's
should be a building block as important -- nay, MORE important -- than OOP in
the first place. Someone (sorry, can't find the reference) once called REST
"what OOP should have been."

backend -> API -> yourapp

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jamiesonbecker
updated post to reflect cek's thoughts

