The art of building Java APIs: Do's and Don'ts - Jonathan Giles

As developers we build on the shoulders of giants - using APIs developed by others to propel ourselves further forward. We often find ourselves in the position where we must provide our own APIs for other developers to use. Building a Java API is not without perils -we must know the features of the language extremely well, we must understand the implications of breaking compatibility, we must own many other responsibilities such as creating excellent documentation, and most importantly, we must practice restraint. This session will give an introduction to developers on how they should develop their own APIs, whether it be for internal use, an open source project, or a commercial library. The focus is purely on building Java APIs, not REST APIs or anything else! Jonathan has over 10 years experience building Java APIs, firstly at Sun Microsystems and Oracle in the Java team working on Java releases 7, 8, 9, and 10, and more recently he has joined Microsoft as a cloud developer advocate, where he works closely with the engineering teams to improve the Java API offering for Azure. This session will work through tips that developers should follow, and advice for developers to avoid.