https://phosphorbbs.net/tags/api-design/ Recent content in Api Design on Phosphor BBS Hugo en-us Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://phosphorbbs.net/blog/userdefaults-for-a-bbs-a-generic-preferences-and-state-api/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://phosphorbbs.net/blog/userdefaults-for-a-bbs-a-generic-preferences-and-state-api/ <p>Every non-trivial app eventually faces the same question: where does small user configuration live, and where does user <em>data</em> live? macOS answered this decades ago with two separate systems — <code>UserDefaults</code> for typed, user-visible settings, and the file system for documents. We had been living with neither, and it showed.</p> <h2 id="the-mess-we-had">The mess we had</h2> <p>Phosphor already had a real preference engine. <code>PreferenceResolver</code> resolves settings through three levels — user, then group, then global — backed by the database, cached with proper invalidation, and connected across processes with Postgres <code>LISTEN/NOTIFY</code>. Screens could even bind to a preference reactively, so flipping a toggle redraws every open screen instantly. For the language side, <code>.phos</code> scripts read settings with <code>pref(&quot;key&quot;)</code> and write them with <code>set_pref(&quot;key&quot;, value)</code>.</p>