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What makes a [[Technology]] ''good''? What made some people to select one [[technology]] over another? What a designer needs to concentrated on when creating a library or framework to make it ''good'', successful, widely accepted? This page highlights the common principles that make things ''work''.

== [[Time To Market]] ==

Evaluation of any software technology starts with downloading, installing and trying to create simple hello world application. The faster one can do this, the less obstacles are found in a way, the better perception such [[technology]] gets. Of course, there is a long way from a ''hello world'' demo, to the final release, yet the first perception counts. 

Just download [[wikipedia::Ruby on Rails|Ruby on Rails]] and create your website. The only thing that you need to do is to execute a command in a shell and you have a running application. The application does not do much, but it took just seconds to create it. How can such technology be bad!?

An important aspect that helps the [[Time To Market]] perception is [[Cluelessness]]. If the library or framework can be used immediately, without reading bunch of materials. If one can write code without studying the whole API. If the code can execute and do something meaningful, as soon as it is compiled, then the entry barrier is lowered, and the [[Time To Market]] made smaller.

What implication does this have with respect to [[API]]s of our libraries? They need to be easy to use, navigate, they need to be self documenting. On the other hand, one can substitute much of this functionality with the [[wikipedia::Ruby on Rails|Ruby on Rails]] trick: having templates, tutorials, premade samples, that can just be taken and used instantly serves this purpose well too. Good tools can make every [[API]] simple to start with...

== Total [[Cost of Ownership]] ==

However [[life cycle]] of a software product is not over after releasing first version. Especially in case of successful products, there will be many subsequent revisions. Creation of these new versions puts fundamentally different requirements on the underlying [[technology]] - it is no longer important how fast it is to write new code. It is more important whether the existing code can be read, debugged and modified without introducing major regressions. It is important whether one can safely upgrade to newer version of underlying framework or [[technology]] without being afraid of [[BackwardCompatibility]] problems.

The implications of this [[life cycle]] phase on the shape of [[API]]s of our libraries is quite different to the initial ''to market'' phase. The code created using such [[API]] needs to be readable, preferably by other person than just the author of the code. And especially, [[API]]s for a [[Good Technology]] shall not stimulate [[Fear of Upgrades]] syndrome. 

== [[Coolness]] ==

It definitely helps if a technology can be seen as being [[wikipedia::coolness|cool]]. People like to talk about cool things, like to show to others that they follow the trends and as such [[technology]] that is cool, is easier to market and to spread. 

''Being cool'' can be achieved in many forms. One can follow the [[wikipedia::coolness|cool]] trends, talk about such technology using [[wikipedia::buzzword|buzzword]]s or even give the technology [[Good Name]].

On the other hand, if there is [[technology]] that is just cool, and it does not help at all with [[Time To Market]] or its [[Cost of Ownership]] is known to be too high, then no amount of coolness can compensate that and in long term the [[technology]] is destined to be seen as poor, and not as good.


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