Trust

From APIDesign

The Chapter 14 also contains a note about the importance of trust in the API design. If you broke your promise of BackwardCompatibility once, you repel clients of your API to alternative offerings. It is hard for them to believe that they should once again build their application on top of your API and risk similar problems again.

I compared this situation with the importance of trust among banks and today, in the days of worldwide financial problems, I've found confirmation of my parallel:

Trust is a reciprocal relationship, dependent upon a desire to be considered decent and honourable. Even in the dog-eat-dog financial markets, trust and integrity are matters of self-interest. However amoral you may be, it is in your interest to care about your reputation, because if you behave badly you will not do business with me - or others - on favourable terms again. Trust matters. bbq pits smokers

Will Hutton, Guardian

Does that mean we need more BackwardCompatibility in our APIs in order to prevent collapse of software industry comparable to the one on financial markets?

--JaroslavTulach 10:19, 30 September 2008 (UTC)