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A blueprint is not an API that is a Specification document | 178 comments | Create New Account

Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.

A blueprint is not an API that is a Specification document

Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 20 2012 @ 12:40 PM EDT

A blueprint is not really an API (interface), it is more like a whole
specification document. An API is like the lines or the words on the blueprint.
How to actually arrange and connect those words or lines is in the
specification, that is more like a blueprint.

And even then the analogy between a blueprint, which you have to follow
precisely and a specification, which only describe the requirements (boundaries
that describe the freedoms you have in the implementation) is not really
correct. A blueprint, unlike a specification, really describes the
implementation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

APIs are hard to develop because you are thinking of so many things at once

Authored by: vonbrand on Friday, April 20 2012 @ 01:44 PM EDT

The API is more the layout of the house. So it would be more like I go visit you, and find the layout of your house brilliant and build one just like it, while never looking at the original blueprints. Sure, it might have been an awful lot of work to come up with the layout, that by itself doesn't make it copyrightable.

BTW, I don't really agree that comming up with a good API isn't creative. It sure is, but comming up with a script that is much more predictable than your run-of-the-mill bad movie sure is hard work ;-)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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