Yahoo APIs

The Google APIs are neat but I was never really attracted to write anything to use it. The only application I could think of would have been too much work because the platform had no SOAP implementation and it wasn’t worth writing one for what I had in mind. When I saw the announcement of Yahoo’s Developer Network I looked around a bit. 20 minutes later I had my implementation of my idea.

It runs on my MUD.

Ken [to Bob]: cappy's near boston
Bob flips through a big book and says, 'Cappys Cleaners & Laundromat at 
   41 Belvidere St Boston, MA; phone number is (617) 859-7525'
Bob whispers to Ken,  'You can see a map at [big url]'.

Bob is an NPC that sits in the room and answers questions. The first line is me talking to the Bob and is visible to everyone in the room. The second line is him answering, also visible to the whole room. The third line is the bot whispering a URL to me. The URL is whispered to limit the spam to the room. Many MUD clients turn it into a link that can be clicked to launch a web browser.

Sometimes the whole SOAP routine is too annoying when a simple GET let me get the app written in 20 minutes. Most of that time was remembering how to code in MOO. Lists are 1-indexed!