API Design for C++

Martin Reddy

Language: English

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann

Published: Feb 18, 2011

Description:

API Design for C++ provides a comprehensive discussion of Application Programming Interface (API) development, from initial design through implementation, testing, documentation, release, versioning, maintenance, and deprecation. It is the only book that teaches the strategies of C++ API development, including interface design, versioning, scripting, and plug-in extensibility. Drawing from the author's experience on large scale, collaborative software projects, the text offers practical techniques of API design that produce robust code for the long term. It presents patterns and practices that provide real value to individual developers as well as organizations. API Design for C++ explores often overlooked issues, both technical and non-technical, contributing to successful design decisions that product high quality, robust, and long-lived APIs. It focuses on various API styles and patterns that will allow you to produce elegant and durable libraries. A discussion on testing strategies concentrates on automated API testing techniques rather than attempting to include end-user application testing techniques such as GUI testing, system testing, or manual testing. Each concept is illustrated with extensive C++ code examples, and fully functional examples and working source code for experimentation are available online. This book will be helpful to new programmers who understand the fundamentals of C++ and who want to advance their design skills, as well as to senior engineers and software architects seeking to gain new expertise to complement their existing talents. Three specific groups of readers are targeted: practicing software engineers and architects, technical managers, and students and educators.

  • The only book that teaches the strategies of C++ API development, including design, versioning, documentation, testing, scripting, and extensibility
  • Extensive code examples illustrate each concept, with fully functional examples and working source code for experimentation available online
  • Covers various API styles and patterns with a focus on practical and efficient designs for large-scale long-term projects

Review

Martin Reddy draws from his experience on large scale, collaborative software projects to present patterns and practices that provide real value to individual developers as well as organizations. API Design for C++ explores often overlooked issues, both technical and non- technical, contributing to successful design decisions that produce high quality, robust, and long-lived APIs. - Eric Gregory, Software Architect, Pixar Animation Studios

"Intended for programmers with intermediate to advanced skills in the C++ programming language, this guide to the building of useful and robust application programming interfaces (APIs) provides practical instruction for software engineers developing systems on which downstream software engineers depend. The work provides a methodical approach to API design covering solution based API design, performance, versioning, documentation, testing, scripting, extensibility and libraries. The work includes numerous illustrations and code examples and access to additional online resources is provided. Reddy is a software development consultant."-- Book News, Reference & Research.

Review

Practical techniques of API design that produce robust code for the long term.

From the Back Cover

Practical techniques of API design that produce robust code for the long term

API Design for C++ Martin Reddy

Martin Reddy draws from his experience on large scale, collaborative software projects to present patterns and practices that provide real value to individual developers as well as organizations. API Design for C++ explores often overlooked issues, both technical and non-technical, contributing to successful design decisions that product high quality, robust, and long-lived APIs. -- Eric Gregory , Software Architect, Pixar Animation Studios

The design of application programming interfaces can affect the behavior, capabilities, stability, and ease of use of end-user applications. With this book, you will learn how to design a good API for large-scale long-term projects. With extensive C++ code to illustrate each concept, API Design for C++ covers all of the strategies of world-class API development. Martin Reddy draws on over fifteen years of experience in the software industry to offer in-depth discussions of interface design, documentation, testing, and the advanced topics of scripting and plug-in extensibility. Throughout, he focuses on various API styles and patterns that will allow you to produce elegant and durable libraries.

Features

  • The only book that teaches the strategies of C++ API development, including design, versioning, documentation, testing, scripting, and extensibility.
  • Extensive code examples illustrate each concept, with fully functional examples and working source code for experimentation available online.
  • Covers various API styles and patterns with a focus on practical and efficient designs for large-scale long-term projects.

About the Author

Dr Martin Reddy is the founder and CEO of the software consultancy firm Code Reddy Inc. and co-author of Level of Detail for 3D Graphics.

About the Author

Dr. Martin Reddy holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and has over 30 years of experience in the software industry. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the AAIA, and a Distinguished Member of the ACM. He has published 10 patents, over 40 professional articles, and 2 books. Martin was co-founder and CTO of the AI startup, PullString, where he oversaw the development of the company's technology until it was acquired by Apple in 2019. While at Apple, Martin was a software architect responsible for the architecture and APIs of major components of the Siri virtual assistant. Before that, Dr. Reddy worked for 6 years at Pixar Animation Studios where he was a lead engineer for the studio's in-house animation system. He worked on several Academy Award Winning and Nominated films, such as "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Cars", "Ratatouille", and "Wall-E". He was also the hair model for Mr Incredible. Martin began his career at SRI International where he worked on a distributed 3D terrain visualization system and co-authored the geospatial functionality in the VRML and X3D ISO standards. Martin was awarded Alumnus of the Year by his alma mater, Strathclyde University.