[dragonwriter]

> > 3. Always Be Making APIs

> This is extremely web centric.

I don't think it is -- in fact, I think its one of the few things on the list that makes a good general rule; most of any project is defining APIs, even if they are initially used only internally by that project. The readability and comprehensibility of the code in that project -- and its maintainability -- will be enhanced if that is recognized, and the same principles of API design that would be applied to public APIs are applied in general to these internal APIs. (It'll also make it easier to reuse the code later if you recognize an application in an unrelated project, but while that's an important benefit, its secondary.)