Are Googlers Too Smart For Their Own Good?

theodp writes "If you're a mere mortal, don't be surprised if your first reaction to Google Storage for Developers is 'WTF?!' Offering the kind of 'user-friendly' API one might expect from a bunch of computer science Ph.D.s, Google Storage even manages to overcomplicate the simple act of copying files. Which raises the question: Are Googlers with 'world-class programming skills' capable of producing straightforward, simple-to-use programming interfaces for ordinary humans?"

Comments

Hint: "For Developers" Means "For Developers"

[eldavojohn]

As a developer who deals daily with RESTful interfaces at his job, I found this to be rather intuitive. It may be complicated but would you be so kind as to elaborate on what is unnecessarily complicated about this interface? You might think "Oh, you're just moving data around" but add on top of that security like SSL support, scalability, namespaces and the ability to store very large hundred GB objects then ... Yeah, the end result is going to be a bit more than PUT <Data>Object</Data>. It's well documented as far as I can tell. I haven't used it so I don't know if this documentation is worthless but it looks comprehensive at first glance.

So, theodp, if you were a developer you would look at this and see a set of interfaces to web services done in a RESTful manner. You would say, "Oh, my users want to use Google storage but they need more of a drag and drop interface." Then you would spend a couple weeks using Ruby on Rails and Scriptaculous to make virtual folders or buckets or whatever your application calls them and using the elegance of RoR with the UI of Scriptaculous so the user can move their photos or data from your server to the cloud or vice versa. You could really use anything you want to interact with it but I would bet these two GPL compatible tools would result in the most rapid of web application development.

So three sentences with links to Google besmirching them for being smart will get you on the frontpage of Slashdot these days? Really the substance of the 'story' here is essentially "WTF?! So complicated it must Suck!"

Offering the kind of 'user-friendly' API ...

Here's a final hint: API stands for Application Programming Interface is not supposed to be user-friendly. It's supposed to be developer-friendly. I hope I don't sound like a Google fanboy but this is a nontrivial task and I would defend the API they have produced. The documentation is far more than you would get from a CS PhD. You want me to take notice of your mindless drivel, theodp? Get off your ass, code an interface for this API and then point out how the API and documentation is lacking in a step by step post. That would be helpful and deserve a place in Slashdot's programming section. What you have here is not.

Re:Hint: "For Developers" Means "For Developers"

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree.

Slashdot is so non-technical these days it's a complete fucking joke. Ignorance just spews on anything even remotely related to software development. Please drop "news from nerds" from the slogan. Replace with "lip service for sycophants".

Re:Hint: "For Developers" Means "For Developers"

[mondoterrifico]

Coding is hard! Let's go shopping!

Re:Hint: "For Developers" Means "For Developers"

[mcgrew]

It isn't slashdot that has become non-nerdy, it's that being a nerd has become "cool", very unlike it was when slashdot started. These days, anybody who knows that you make your computer stop by clicking "start" thinks (s)he's a nerd, even if they couldn't copy a file without a GUI, let alone have ever heard of Linux or BSD or any other non-Microsoft OS (which these days actually have GUIs).

In the old days, a submission like this most likely wouldn't have been posted, but now we have the firehose, where every nerd wannabe can vote a story up. There are still very good, technical stories here (there was one a couple of days ago about mathematics) -- you just have to ignore the ones like this one voted up by the wannabes. That said, I haven't looked at Google's APIs.

God, I never thought I'd see the day when we would be considered cool! Just laugh smugly and enjoy being cool instead of being a wannabe.

That said, sometimes I say stupid things here (probably a lot this week, I've had the flu and it's affected my mental faculties).

If everyone was supposed to understand it...

[Low Ranked Craig]

They wouldn't call it code.

Re:If everyone was supposed to understand it...

[Anonymous Coward]

The da Vinci Code begs to differ.

I still don't understand why anyone would want to read it. Does that count?

It's just not for regular users

[kikito]

In other news: the space shuttle UI is too complicated for regular car drivers! duh.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

We didn't have a Google story for over two hours, so we had to post what was available.

Meanwhile, slashdot editors too dumb for own good

[jaymz2k4]

I was expecting something really crazy and complex but what I saw was well documented and made sense. Seriously, how on earth is this front page news on slashdot?? I wont repeat the many well made statements that "API's arent for users" above. I'm just surprised this has made it to the front page as a developers link. I sure hope I don't work with the sub. at any point if he thinks this is an example of people being "too smart for their own good". /saddened

Are you one of those types

[Anonymous Coward]

who flood developer-boards with questions that typically look like

" Sir Sir please help sir I have project due sir I need full workking code by tomorrow sir" ??

If so, you would expect everything to be point and click, I guess.

Ob. Quote

[gzipped_tar]

There's been an awful lot of discussion about what is or isn't simple, and people have gotten a pretty sophisticated notion of simplicity, but I'm not sure it has helped.
                                            -- Ward Cunningham