17 clever APIs for every developer whim

The poets like to say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Fantasy writers say the journey to the magical land lies through the door hidden in the back of the closet. On the Internet, the portal is the API. The programmers just spell out the required parameters in the correct JSON or XML format and the effect is just the same. The right path will take you to amazing places. There are fascinating and very useful treasure troves of data out there and the APIs are the way to get them.

The APIs began as a mechanism that let computers talk to other computers but along the way they’ve evolved into a large ecosystem of their own. Developers don’t need to write everything themselves because there’s often an API that’s waiting to deliver the information in a form that’s usually pretty close to what you might need. They’re building blocks, like Lincoln Logs or Lego bricks for creating applications.

To read this article in full, please click here