Open Stack

On Fri, Aug 23, 2019 at 4:28 AM Thierry Carrez <thierry at openstack.org> wrote:
>
> Michael McCune wrote:
> > [...]
> > I don't have any answers to this more existential question about the
> > SIG, but we as a group felt it was a good idea to reach out to the
> > wider community for advice and guidance. So, what do you all have to
> > say? What would you like to see from the API-SIG moving forward?
> > Should we re-evaluate the purpose of this group and how it relates to
> > the OpenStack community?
> > [...]
>
> Thanks for starting this thread, Michael. Just because something was
> needed at one point in our history does not mean we need to continue
> doing it forever, so reevaluating periodically is important.
>
> The API WG was originally formed to (1) provide guidelines for API
> design for project teams to follow, and (2) improve API user experience
> by converging the OpenStack APIs to be consistent. It was then converted
> to a SIG, but the original purpose remained.
>
> Would you say that those goals have been completed? Are the documented
> guidelines sufficiently complete to be usable? Is the resulting API user
> experience sufficiently consistent? If not, maybe this is an opportunity
> to recruit, by painting a desirable common goal, maybe leveraging the
> "community goals" process to achieve incremental, baby-steps
> improvements within the scope of a release cycle.
>

i think the questions you lead with are excellent, and definitely
something that we as a SIG, and community, should consider. although i
feel quite good about the current state of the guidelines i'm sure
there is room for improvement, but i think the question about the
resulting API user experience is quite poignant.

these are topics we are definitely bringing up for Ed's last meeting
next week ;)

> Personally I think it's always good to have a group of API design
> experts that project teams can tap into when they have questions on good
> API design. I just have no idea how often such advice is actually asked
> for. How often do you get questions on API design from projects adding
> features to their API? Would you say that when a new project adds an
> API, it is well-designed, or it would have benefited from your advice?
>

these days, the rate of questions to the group has slowed but there
are still times when we get called up (maybe once a month or less). i
agree that having a group of experienced API engineers /does/ help the
broader community, i think the tough part to evaluate is the impact we
have on a day-to-day basis. in the past i have experienced first hand
the effects of the API SIG and i have usually been very pleased and
delighted that the group had such a wide reach. within the last few
years though i have not had as much direct contact, it has mainly been
through SIG meetings.

i really appreciate the questions you are posing, i don't think i have
good answers for them but i believe the SIG should put some time into
thinking about, and answering, them. thanks again for the thoughtful
comments =)

peace o/

> Cheers,
>
> --
> Thierry Carrez (ttx)
>