Is the copy/paste approach professionally viable when working with the Google Maps API?
I find that I understand much of the Javascript concepts used in the Google Maps API code, but then again there is quite a bit that is way over my head in syntax.
For example, the geocoder syntax seems to be of Ajax form, though I don’t understand what is happening under the hood (especially with lines like results[0].geometry.location). I am able to modify the body of if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) for different purposes though.
So, being that I am able to take various code from the Developer’s Guide and rework it to an extent for my own purposes, all the while not fully understanding what Google Maps is actually doing, does this make me a copy-paste programmer?
Is this a bad practice, or is this professionally viable? I am, of course, interested in learning as much as I can, but what if time-constraints outweigh the learning process?
Rails-API gem, Is there such thing as an API only application?
I’ve built a few API’s using the complete rails stack. In each project there have been multiple uses for rails core features. Each of the API has had management screens for monitoring usage, managing authentication keys, etc. Is there such thing as an API without a management front end?
How to do external API testing (blackbox)
Assume you are using APIs from a vendor, how to make sure their API is working as expected?
event listener pattern in api – what should adding the same listener twice do?
In designing an API that provides an event listening interface, it seems there are two conflicting ways of treating calls to add/remove listeners:
Generate commercial license key for web service
Background I have a business question regarding web-based software licensing. A number of web sites offer software as a service for various APIs. A good example is Google’s Custom Search API. The process to use web services typically resembles: Account. User creates an account. Server. User defines the IP address(es) of the server(s) that will […]
What does it mean to expose a C++ code publicly as a C API and what are the advantages of doing it?
I often hear people say that C++ programmers should expose their library’s/product’s public API as a C API.
Establishing an API to provide end-user apps/scripts access to multiple types of databases
Question and Context I am currently working on a project where the main question is, how do we insert an API between the database and end-users who may develop applications/scripts of their own that will work with or on top of the database? The database type I am working with is Postgresql, and this project […]
Building dedicated codepad in PHP
I am author of growing framework, which is focused around User Interface building in PHP. Essential requirements for the up-coming website redesign is ability to run code examples. I am willing to extend this option to add-on authors which would mean other people will be able to execute code on my server.
Why were Java collections implemented with “optional methods” in the interface?
During my first implementation extending the Java collection framework, I was quite surprised to see that the collection interface contains methods declared as optional. The implementer is expected to throw UnsupportedOperationExceptions if unsupported. This immediately struck me as a poor API design choice.
Google Maps – Geofence a route
I’m looking at implementing a PHP based application, where by you have a certain route for example London to Edinburgh. Along this route, I want to calculate say a 10mi Radius or Polygon around the whole route/driving directions, check whether certain defined points/lat-lon’s are within this radius. If so – Add them to the waypoint list, re-calculate the route and re-generate the driving directions.