Consistency vs. Usability?

Posted by dsimcha on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by dsimcha
Published on 2011-03-06T15:19:35Z Indexed on 2011/03/06 16:17 UTC
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Filed under:

libraries

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usability

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api-design

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consistency

When designing an API, consistency often aids usability. However, sometimes they conflict where an extra API feature can be added to streamline a common case. It seems like there's somewhat of a divide over what to do here. Some designs (the Java standard library come to mind) favor consistency even if it makes common cases more verbose. Others (the Python standard library comes to mind) favor usability even if it means treating the common case as "special" to make it easier.

What is your opinion on how consistency and usability should be balanced?

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