what is the point of an API for static data like this? storage is cheap... why not just download the entire Quran, Bible, Torah, whatever to your local hard drive... why incur network latency for this task?
Some people find joy and satisfaction in developing systems. I don't have total insight on their plans, so I am not going to ask "What is the point?" I prefer never to ask "What is the point" to anyone unless somehow their efforts are providing a net negative to the human condition.
Sometimes the "point" is because it can be done. Sometimes the point is someone wants to learn about building an API and would prefer to do it with the Quran rather than with movie quotes.
> Or maybe there is a interesting and expected answer that provides a learning experience?
Then it should be phrased like that. It's obvious the original comment was phrased as a condescending question, especially since they tried to answer it themselves.
There's a difference between genuine interest and trying to show off how smart you are.
So quick to offense. it wasn't meant to be condescending, it was meant to be a serious technical critique of what appears to be a publicly advertised product.
> it wasn't meant to be condescending, it was meant to be a serious technical critique of what appears to be a publicly advertised product
Oh, I think everyone was confused because there was no serious technical critique. You made a flippant comment about disk space and network latency. Basic observations that anyone building this would have considered.
You can see from all the comments that everyone viewed you as condescending and unhelpful. You might want to revisit your writing style, since your intentions are not clear to anyone.
In this context I think it was fairly clear I was referring to HTTP API. If they want to utilize a sqlite client or query local data in some other way I think that makes sense. You could download the whole project as a project dependency, and build your app as an offline app. I wouldn't expect a Quran app to require internet connection.
It never hurts to ask. It also never hurts to learn the appropriate way to phrase questions that are genuine. For some reason, a pattern develops in some people where they think there is value is just asking why all the time. It is best to stop and think before firing of your "Why didn't you just use solution X". This rarely leads to constructive dialog and instead generates a low-value conversation a lot like job interview situations where poor interviewers are trying to set up a candidate with why questions just so they can unload some ego boosting bit of advice.
woah woah calm down... I wasn't trying to insult anyone.
"I wanted to build a fun, cool project." Is a perfectly valid answer.
I think there is value in people critiquing methods and designs for various systems. If I were building some new project I would want my peers to give me honest critique and constructive probing. I make mistakes all the time and would never learn from those mistakes if others didn't point them out to me.
> "liabd 1 hour ago [–] This is awesome and will enable a whole suite of apps to be build on top of it. Great work"
So even in this thread people are discussing adding this service as a dependency to their own applications. I think if you are building a project for yourself for fun that is one thing... but If you advertise it for public use, criticism is perfectly valid, and should be expected.
I am not familiar with the Quran, but for the Bible, different translations have different copyright policies. For instance, the ESV text is free for non-commercial use, but if you want to use it for commercial purposes you must pay a licensing fee.
ESV has a pretty decent API, actually! https://api.esv.org/ I used it way back when when Google TV was a thing, to make a verse-display used during bible studies.
Scratching my head over this, too... I have over 50 ebooks on my phone, it barely even registers compared to the videos and apps. All perfectly searchable, too.
Presumably it has value in that it makes it easy to integrate Qur'an content into an existing application.
Beyond that, it seems like this could be used as a base for adding new translations, commenting and conversation on particular verses, personal collections of scripture, etc. If you are planning on going in any of those directions you need to build a platform for the static stuff before you expand.
So you'd rather integrate with an API that involves network egress to an untrusted third party system?!
There's plenty of formats they don't involve SQL. It could easily be JSON or XML or YAML or anything else. SQLite is built into Python, you just need to open the file and query it, no importing needed.
