[hiccuphippo]

That's kind of the way I write APIs, albeit at a smaller scale. First write the code of how I want to use the API, then write the the actual API. I remember a talk from the developers of the Python requests library mentioning this same process.

[reflectiv]

Yes, I do this too...its a different thing when you are talking about your own insular project or something at a smaller scale.

The thing I was talking about was larger scale projects like the ones mentioned by the author (of the sort I work on at my day job) where you have teams of stakeholders and outside influence combined with a desire to release rapidly in an iterative form.

Software these days is just done differently in those contexts...we can't slow down enough to do what was detailed above...I just wish the world was sorted in a way or slowed down enough to do REAL engineering.