Phill Mendonça-Vieira

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2024-12-22 06:00:02

Every organization that offers an application programming interface almost immediately starts to version it. APIs are essentially contracts between us, service providers, and our users. The bargain is you build your app using our service in some presumably mutually beneficial arrangement, and in exchange we promise to give you a stable platform atop which you will construct your dreams.

Everyone agrees that it is extremely rude to break an API. Changing APIs unexpectedly makes our users sad because their robots will break, and they will be forced to waste time and energy figuring out whatever broke. To prevent this, we version our APIs. Versions are clauses in this contract: we say, this is v1 or v2 or 20241231 or whatever, and we hereby promise to not change it. Should you want to use latest and greatest features, you are free to upgrade at your leisure. Or not don’t upgrade, that’s fine too.

We could version UIs, but we don’t. We change UIs constantly, remorselessly. Every reason for providing stable interfaces applies just as well for human beings as they do for robots – but somehow we only respect the robots.

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