I was wondering how best to answer this for a while, there are several paths that I thought of when I first read this.
I’ll start off by addressing the direct point of helper functions. It would be possible for me to provide some high-level helper functions such as uploading a file, getting it and getting all files, and if the fully featured safe file manager is picked it would probably cut down time spent developing by a good bit, but this would still put pressures on me to maintain it which I mighn’t be able to fullfil as the API can change rapidly and the higher-level and specific the function is, the less the developer is able to custom make their functions and limits what developers can do. To be fair there are ways around some of these problems by using defaults and optional parameters in the code so there would be optional customisability, but it could in some cases make things a lot more complicated for developers and myself.
I’ll now address the more abstract point on complexity of the safe API. I’ll admit when you first glance at the safe API it can be a bit overwhelming but once you understand the purpose of each function and what they accomplish, how data is stored on the network, as well as how the networks works it begins much clearer and easier to develop. Again, this can also be overwhelming and could deter would be developers. This is why I think it might be a good idea for some videos or short blog post giving a brief overview of the network and the API (this could also tie in nicely with the Preparing a coordinated marketing campaign to concisely explain the safe network to get more people on board ). I attempted something like it with the safedemo main.js file (click here if you want to watch) , but looking back on it I should have done more explaining and less stating what I had written. If there is enough demand for it in the polls tomorrow I will try to do my best on it and might ask the community to help me along with it or edit the draft scripts/blog.
And finally, I am not an experienced javascript developer (I really started looking at javscript a bit over a year ago), the only formal coding/programming I have was attending CoderDojo (it’s an Irish charity for 7-17 year olds teaching how to code) and I only did about 2 years of it about 4 years ago. Once you get the hang of what the examples mean the safe API really does become a lot easier to use and understand.