In my last post, I explained what truly went on in the Twitpocalypse, which dealt with tweet IDs passing the limits of the 32-bit signed integer (from -2,147,483,647 to +2,147,483,647), which is the most common datatype in use in computer applications today. Yet, whilst computer science has limits embedded into its structure, Twitter does not – the number of users and tweets is growing, and FAST! In September, the Twitter API team estimates, we will pass the limits of the 32-bit unsigned integer which is up to 4,294,967,295. Thus, applications and libraries that utilise that datatype in conjunction with tweet identification numbers in the Twitter API will fail, once again. In the post where I explained the first Twitpocalypse, I recommended that all applications switch to the 64-bit signed (or unsigned even) datatype, and then maybe even consider storing the IDs as strings, with variable length (no arithmetic between IDs is really needed, so this should be extremely easy). The Twitter API team is doing the same thing – it has now informed developers that it is best to switch to a 64-bit implementation for storing those integers. Hopefully, this time, we will be prepared for the upcoming Twitpocalypse, and even less confusion and problems will arise when we pass that huge number of tweets. I myself am switching to a string implementation for the IDs in the Twitter client that I am developing (more info coming soon!), so that no matter how many tweets have been posted, the application will not fail. Good luck, everyone, in surviving this next round of this problem. [@twitterapi 's tweet; Twitter API Announcements (via TechCrunch)]
Tag Archive: API
ThinkGeek has updated the warfare category of their catalog with a new USB-powered missile launcher. Its perks: it has a built-in laser to guide the missiles, it has a very powerful software frontend, and most importantly, it offers an API!!! Finally, developers can terrorize others by coding applications that make use of the firing capibilties of the launcher. The API is built in .NET, so using it is a blast – a sample application is included, complete with raw C# code. And just because of said API, I am willing to slop down 40 bucks for this widget. You can find out more about the product and download the API for free on the product page. It’ll be interesting to run the DLL through .NET Reflector, and if I find anything intriguing about the way it’s built, I’ll post it here. Have fun terrorizing people! 