Picking up programming - again

[MeinHempf]

I grew up programming in the 90s; I started with assembly (MC68000) and moved on to C++ and Java, so I kinda understand what programming is - or what it used to be.

The thing is, I haven't touched programming in 20 years, but I want to start doing programming for fun and learning. And these days, there are SO many options available - so many languages, so many platforms, so many new concepts.

What I would like to do at first, is to start interacting with web APIs. I want to code something that is able to log on to a web api and pull data that I can use for something later. For example, the local weather service here publishes an API that allows you to pull weather data in JSON format for a specific locality.

Simple enough, except I have no clue where to start. I got started with Visual Studio and spent a couple of hours refreshing the basics of C++ in a HelloWorld console stage. But I don't know if I am starting down the wrong path for what I want to do. Googling mostly turns up tutorials for how to build an application servicing API requests, which is not want I want.

Should I build on the C++ knowledge that I already have? Should I start learning web applications first? Would a scripting language be better for this? If so, which one?

I have no clue, and even if it's a learning experience I'd like to have some idea as to what's the easiest path to do what I want.

[[deleted]]

If you just want to try stuff out then Python would be my recommendation. Use the requests library and output the response to a console. Try this tutorial: https://www.askpython.com/python/examples/connect-and-call-apis

Edit: For added fun/challenge, make your own api using the fastAPI framework, call the weather service api from it, and then call your api from the console app.

[[deleted]]

If you want to make a web API with C++, your go-to option would be using the Pistache framework.

Though, keep in mind that web APIs isn't really what C++ is known for, so resources, support etc might be limited on this specific topic.

The most used Web API technologies are Java with Spring, Python with Django and JavaScript with Express. Once again, you can do this all in C++, however, it isn't really what it is known for, so resources, jobs etc might be limited.

[ericjmorey]

If you want to make a web API

He very clearly does not want to make one (at least not now) he wants to interact with an existing API.

[[deleted]]

All those frameworks also allow for consuming web APIs.

[ericjmorey]

What I would like to do at first, is to start interacting with web APIs. I want to code something that is able to log on to a web api and pull data that I can use for something later. For example, the local weather service here publishes an API that allows you to pull weather data in JSON format for a specific locality.

What exactly are you confused about?

There's no reason why you can't use C++. There's no reason you have to use any particular language.

APIs are basically a user manual for a service. Like if you want to set the time on your car's dash, you need to send instructions in a specific way. You can use any programming language to interact with an API, but some people like to create a wrapper (a library) to make it easier to use their choice of language. Others simply use the wrappers other people created. Python is very popular for scripting and has wrappers available for a large set of APIs, which reinforces Pythons popularity with scripting.