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Ask HN: Dumbest thing you've seen in an API?

3 points by dholowiski 15y ago

I'm playing around with Paypal IPN (Instant Payment Notifications) and I just realized that they are storing data in variable _names_ Eg: masspay_txn_id_x - "where X is the record number of the mass pay item" and there are many other _x variables. How about "item_name x" yes - that's a space in the variable name, and the description hints that it's even worse - "Item name as passed by you, the merchant. Or, if not passed by you, as entered by your customer." which I think means that the variable _name_ could literally be anything I or the customer choose it to be (and there could be an undetermined number of them). So I ask you - what's the most crazy thing you've ever seen in an API?

glimcat 15y ago
Dozens of conflicting ways to do the same thing, none of which are adequately documented. Stuff left in despite the fact that it does absolutely nothing of use. Random feature bloat. Bugs in key features which go unaddressed indefinitely while new random features are added.