Designing a better API?

Question

1. What are the best practices and patterns to be followed for designing APIs?
2. How to achieve implementation hiding the best way (C++/Java)?
3. Designing APIs

Answer 1

I suggest you to check How to Design a Good API & Why it Matters

A well-written API can be a great asset to the organization that wrote it and to all that use it. Given the importance of good API design, surprisingly little has been written on the subject. In this talk (recorded at Javapolis), Java library designer Joshua Bloch teaches how to design good APIs, with many examples of what good and bad APIs look like.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/effective-api-design

Also you can read the book Practical API Design: Confessions of a Java™ Framework Architect. I didn't read it so I'm not sure if it contents could be useful to you.

Another resource to check: How To Design a (module) API

Answer 2

Q4:

• How to Design a Good API & Why it Matters - Great video, well worth the time spent watching it.

In my opinion, Josh Bloch has the best ideas when it comes to writing good APIs, and he can explain them in a very easy-to-understand manner. The video above will address Q1-3 for you.

Answer 3

Checkout this podcast

Its talks about some really good concepts regarding api design.

Answer 4

This might be useful for you.

The Little Manual of API Design (wayback machine)

The Little Manual of API Design (original; dead)