Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries, 3rd Edition

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Sample API Specification

Revised by Immo Landwerth

Many of the guidelines described in this book are best considered up front during the initial design. This appendix contains an example of an API specification that should be written early in the process of designing a framework feature. Although such an API specification does not describe the full details of the feature, it does highlight the most important elements of the design to nail down up front. This example is heavily based on specifications we use for the development of the .NET platform on GitHub. Its content is as simple as we could find, but it’s a good illustration of the parts, flow, and priorities of a specification intended to describe framework APIs that adhere to the guidelines ...