In your quest to become a proficient software developer, it helps to have a great IDE. A full-featured high-performance IDE will help you create quality code for your software applications.
However, not only does it help to have a great IDE, but data and functions from online APIs power most software applications on the market.
In this round-up we will introduce you to two valuable services to progress your journey as a software developer: an IDE, and API.
Let’s begin with one of the most sophisticated IDEs in application development, RAD Studio.
What is an IDE?
An IDE, or Integrated Development Environment, is a software application that provides a complete environment for software development.
Why RAD Studio?
People use RAD Studio because it is a powerful IDE for developing cross-platform applications that target Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Q&A: Answers to 10 common questions about RAD Studio:
- What is RAD Studio? RAD Studio is a powerful IDE for developing cross-platform applications.
- What programming languages does RAD Studio support? RAD Studio supports Delphi and C++. You can also use the Python for Delphi toolset that lets you execute Python scripts.
- What platforms can I develop applications for with RAD Studio? You can develop applications for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Linux and Android.
- What features does RAD Studio offer? RAD Studio offers many features for rapid application development, including a code editor, debugger, compiler, platform simulators, and profiler.
- What are the latest features of RAD Studio? Since the release of version 11 in 2022, RAD Studio has introduced support for high-DPI 4k screens, real-time design styles visibility, support for Windows 11, as well as macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15, and Android 12, and support for Apple’s M-series processors! It also delivers extensive CodeInsight help for faster coding, support for Android API level 32, and a Delphi iOS simulator for Delphi. The latest version is RAD Studio 11.2, released in September of 2022.
- How much does RAD Studio cost? RAD Studio is available in both free and paid versions. For detailed pricing information, visit this page
- How can I get started with RAD Studio? There is a free trial available on the RAD Studio website. Download it here.
- What are the system requirements for RAD Studio? RAD Studio requires Windows 7 or higher, 4 GB of RAM, and 10 GB of free hard disk space.
- Is RAD Studio easy to use? Yes, RAD Studio is easy to use, even for beginners. One requirement is knowledge of the Delphi programming language.
- What kind of support is available for RAD Studio? Embarcadero support is available round the clock. There is also a large community of RAD Studio users who can offer support and answer questions.
- I’m a professional developer. Will RAD Studio meet my needs? Yes, RAD Studio is a powerful IDE that is suitable for experienced developers.
RAD Studio offers some things that many IDEs don’t. It is designed so that you can create apps for all major platforms with less coding effort. It’s built around writing one source code and compiling for all relevant platforms.
Also, many people use RAD Studio because it offers remote desktop functionality, allowing them to collaborate more effectively with teams and get remote desktop support for VCL and IDE.
You can easily connect to over 20 different database technologies and use the cross-platform HTTP and REST client libraries to call upon REST services or Azure or AWS resources.
Now that you have the best IDE installed to start programming, you will want to add some data fuel to your applications and maybe some really neat functionalities to your program where online APIs have done the hard part of the coding for you.
What about powerful third-party functions and data sources to power my software apps?
Do you need a reliable, affordable, and simple-to-use geolocation solution to integrate into your software code?
All kinds of software use geolocation. Geolocation is routinely used in mapping applications, location-based search engines, and social media platforms. With the IoT (Internet of Things) coming to the fore, geolocation is becoming necessary in even more app development, such as tracking locations of lost or stolen phones, geotagging photos, tracking the location of a delivery truck in real-time, finding the location of mission people, locating closest public restroom, finding closest parking spot, locating the nearest electric vehicle charging station. You might not be programming these types of apps now, but if you plan to in the future, check out Ipstack from APILayer.
Are you interested in using coding to analyze financial markets?
Lots of people are learning coding to earn a side income from currency, stock, crypto, and betting exchanges. APILayer offers many comprehensive data sources in these areas, which many developers are integrating into their software projects for personal or professional use.
Does doing cool image recognition stuff with your code appeal to you?
You don’t have to be an advanced coder and machine learning expert to take advantage of the many simple-to-use computer vision APIs available from APILayer. For starters, there is:
Image to Text API employs a neural net (LSTM) based OCR engine that prioritizes line recognition. The system is also capable of identifying recurring character patterns. Handwriting and printing can both be analyzed using this method.
Violence Detection API can identify whether a picture is violent or not. It can tell if an image shows killing, shooting, blood, or gore.
Nudity Detection API accepts an image file as binary data or a URL and marks it as “naked content” in real-time, depending on which it is.
The Image Labeling API simplifies extracting tags and labels from your images for targeted content discovery. With pre-trained models, you can review images for objects, colors, food, explicit content, and other things to learn more about them. The API includes deep learning algorithms that can be used to search for specific scenes, objects, and other features within an image. There are keywords in the JSON results that give information about the content.
There you have it. With a nice-to-use IDE such as RAD Studio and some powerful and simple-to-use APIs, you can begin coding some neat software applications immediately.
All APILayer APIs offer new users a FREE API key so they can test a limited amount of API calls each month while they build their software applications. You can pay for a paid plan when you scale up later.