The Web as an API.

As programmers we have worked with many Application Development Interface API development kits. They are well suited for interaction with a particular system. A vast source of information can be made accessible by using the http protocol through the web as an API. This setup has many advantages including the vast knowledge available on setting web servers and services. Also, these tools are available on most hardware and operating system combinations. In this paper I will cover the various types of systems that can be developed this way, their advantages and some drawbacks of this approach. Index Terms--Application Programmer Interface, Distributed applications, Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, Web