OpenSourcePortland/weather_weasel — pull request #6 by marktabler (2013-03-11 07:25:48+00:00)
Title: Removed detailed data for Quantitiative Precipitation Forecasts

This is one of those "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" questions, but a certain amount of navel-gazing is encouraged in software development. :)

Our API gem offers a convenience piece to people who want to know about the weather. We start with a comprehensive report (the Raw Data), and break it up via methods into easily consumable chunks. It's useful to have highs, lows, and chance of rain in cases like this. In the event of odd questions, we also make the Raw Data available to our users.

I would argue that in terms of QPF reports (Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts), they are automatically an unusual enough question that inquirers get to go through the Raw Data interface. Think of this test: it's easy to imagine someone asking about tomorrow's high temperature, or the wind outlook for the week. I've never heard someone ask how many inches of rain we expect to have on Wednesday.

One of the principles involved in software design is YAGNI: You Ain't Gonna Need It. I don't think anyone is going to be upset if we don't have a QPF method available in the gem. If we later find out they do, we can add it very easily - but today, we can remove 8 methods and a chunk of the test suite if we let that data come through the Raw Data interface.