I’m fascinated by the dominating power of programming languages. There are many ideological forces at play in the technology sector, but the dogma that exists within each programming language community continues to amaze me. The potential absence of programming language dogma within the world of APIs is one of the reasons I feel it has been successful, but alas, other forms of dogma tends to creep in around specific API approaches and philosophies, making API evangelism and adoption always a challenge.
The absence of programming languages in the API design, management, and testing discussion is why they have been so successful. People in these disciplines have ben focused on the language agnostic aspects of just doing business with APIs. It is also one of the reasons the API deployment conversation still is still so fragmented, with so many ways of getting things done. When it comes to API deployment, everyone likes to bring their programming language beliefs to the table, and let it affect how we actually deliver this API, and in my opinion, why API gateways have the potential to make a comeback, and even excel when it comes to playing the role of API intermediary, proxy, and gateway.
Programming language dogma is why many groups have so much trouble going API first. They see APIs as code, and have trouble transcending the constraints of their development environment. I’ve seen many web or HTTP APIs called Java API, Python APIs, or reflect a specific language style. It is hard for developers to transcend their primary programming language, and learn multiple languages, or think in a language agnostic way. It is not easy for us to think out of our boxes, and consider external views, and empathize with people who operate within other programming or platform dimensions. It is just easier to see the world through our lenses, making the world of APIs either illogical, or something we need to bend to our way of doing things.
I’m in the process of evolving from my PHP and Node.js realm to a Go reality. I’m not abandoning the PHP world because many of my government and institutional clients still operate in this world, and I’m using Node.js for a lot of serverless API stuff I’m doing. However I can’t ignore the Go buzz I keep coming stumbling upon. I also feel like it is time for a paradigm shift, forcing me out of my comfort zone and push me to think in a new language. This is something I like to do every five years, shifting my reality, keeping me on my toes, and forcing me to not get too comfortable. I find that this keeps me humble and thinking across programming languages, which is something that helps me realize the power of APIs, and how they transcend programming languages, and make data, content, algorithms, and other resources more accessible via the web.
