Dd SDK Ios:swift API Design

Swift API Design

Use Swift's API Design Guidelines for clear call sites. Prefer the smallest API that preserves meaning.

Reference: https://www.swift.org/documentation/api-design-guidelines/

Review

Before adding or renaming a Swift declaration:

• Read call sites first; isolated declarations can mislead.
• Search nearby terms, helpers, and overloads. Reuse same-concept names.
• Draft the one-sentence documentation summary. Redesign if it needs caveats, implementation details, or repeated type names.
• Add helpers, types, overloads, or wrappers only for real concepts, meaningful repetition, or bug prevention.
• Re-read final use sites as English. Fix anything artificial, vague, redundant, or ambiguous.

Names

• Include words needed to avoid ambiguity.
• Omit words that repeat visible type information.
• Name values by role. Use established terms correctly.
• Avoid nonstandard abbreviations. Keep acronyms consistent with Swift casing, such as URL, UTF8, and userID.
• Prefer member APIs when there is a natural receiver.
• Use make... for factories that create new values.
• Use properties for cheap, side-effect-free state; methods for work, conversion, or effects.
• Give side-effect-free methods noun-phrase or prepositional names, such as distance(to:); give mutating or side-effecting methods imperative verb names, such as append(_:).
• Name mutating/nonmutating pairs consistently: sort() / sorted(), append(_:) / appending(_:), union(_:) / formUnion(_:).
• Name Booleans as positive assertions about the receiver, such as isEmpty, hasBorder, or contains(_:).
• Name protocols for things as nouns, such as Collection; capabilities with able, ible, or ing, such as Equatable.

Argument Labels

Design the whole call, not only the base name.

• Omit the first argument label only when the argument completes the base name or the initializer is a value-preserving conversion.
• Include the first label when it clarifies role, unit, source, destination, or narrowing conversion.
• Make the base name and labels form a clear phrase; do not force awkward grammar.
• Use labels to clarify weakly typed values such as String, Int, Any, NSObject, or AnyObject.
• Put prepositions where they make the call read naturally, such as move(from:to:) or insert(_:at:).

Overloads and Defaults

• Overloads must share one semantic operation. Different work needs different names.
• Avoid overloads that differ only by return type or weakly typed parameters.
• Defaults should keep common calls clean without hiding important behavior.
• Boolean arguments need clear labels. Prefer an enum when true and false are not self-explanatory.

Reject These

• Helpers that wrap simple expressions, such as hasA || hasB, without improving the call site.
• Names based on implementation details instead of the caller's role.
• Types created only for future flexibility before a second real use or clear invariant exists.
• Vague verbs such as process, handle, or perform when the actual operation can be named.