If 90% of usage boils down to a small number of rigid patterns, then there is a simple solution: a handful of convenience functions. Often these functions are

If 90% of usage boils down to a small number of rigid patterns, then there is a simple solution: a handful of convenience functions. Often these functions are missing, because the demand for convenience functions is obscured by the fact that every experienced user defined them for himself years ago. That forces newbies to suffer through the unnecessary task of understanding the fully generalized API before they can accomplish simple tasks. Languages that have good support for optional arguments, such as Python and Lisp, also make it possible to create APIs that are elegant and concise for experts but extremely intimidating for beginners. It may be more elegant to have a single function with a slew of optional arguments, and an experienced user may be able to accomplish any task quite concisely by specifying a few arguments, but a beginner would be better served by a handful of specific functions with specific names. API writers should consider providing those functions as simple wrappers to the general API, in order to provide a simpler learning curve for users who might never need more complex functionality. Examining how those wrapper functions are implemented can help intermediate users figure out the general API, too.