

The Lie of the API - SanderMak
http://ruben.verborgh.org/blog/2013/11/29/the-lie-of-the-api/

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pedalpete
Initially the author came across as having a vendetta against developers, like
we are lining our pockets building APIs that nobody uses and have no value,
but, of course, APIs are often either just tacked on to a product at very low
cost, or are the backbone of the product, where the API severs both external
requests which want the data, as well as the main website. I've actually never
built a website where I didn't build an API which served my content to a
front-end single-page application.

The cost of working with APIs isn't on the side of the API creator, it's the
consumers who are interfacing with the API who likely incur the most cost,
often due to poor documentation or misunderstanding how the API should be
used. Even researching all the available APIs and the requirements of each can
be time consuming, but at the same time, it's still definitely cheaper than
either building an entire service yourself or scraping webpages.

So what is the author's solution? He doesn't seem to have one. I think you can
skip this article if you haven't read it yet.

