A Question of Code

"API" is a common term. But what are Application Programming Interfaces, and where and why would you use them?

Show Notes

Development (and web-dev in particular) is a field full of initialisms and acronyms. We often take them for granted without thinking too much about these things that we use every day. This week we dive into one of the most common TLIs (Three Letter Initialisms) that all web developers will encounter sooner or later: APIs (also known as Application Programming Interfaces).

How well do we know our TLIs? How (and why) might you scrape data from a web page? And why would using an API be preferable? And when should you take the time to learn APIs? Find out all this and more in this week's application-interfacing instalment of A Question of Code.

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What is A Question of Code?

A newbie coder and a seasoned veteran discuss the questions that always come up when someone begins learning to code.

Ed is looking at getting a career in programming and has been learning to code for just over a year. During this time he’s been building up a stack of questions that keep coming up from other newbie coders. Luckily, he’s got someone he can ask for help: Tom. Tom’s a seasoned coder, having worked in the industry for a few years now and has all the answers Ed needs, or does he?