People are Awesome | Pokemon Go

We all know the latest buzz. The world has been going crazy over Pokemon Go, starting their adventure as a trainer, merging the gap between _real_ life and the virtual world. There are hundreds of blogs about how Go has impacted the world, how it is forcing people out of their homes and to actually explore their city and meet new people, making the world a more social place.
(Personally, I still don't believe this. Go reminds me of the people from Wall E. Everyone's under the influence of _The Screen_. But let's leave this for another blog :) )

Go & Open Source Developers
This is why people are awesome. In less than a month since Go's release, there are dozens of Github repos creating unofficial APIs and tools to help you locate Pokemon, find the closest poke stops and gyms.
My roommate has been going out everyday in hunt for Pokemon since he got hired last week. Last night, while discussing stories of his many adventures and how he met so many people playing the same game in parks, we thought it'd be a good idea if there was a radar of some sort to help him locate Pokemon and Poke stops. I had a hunch someone or the other (because there are 7 #$&*ing billion people on this planet) must have created a repo with the idea, or at least figured out API endpoints using which we could build our own Java/Android client to locate Pokemon.

I found a Flask repository first -  it was a website to find Pokemon based on your location.
Then several Python APIs which were slightly challenging to go through.
The Flask repository led to Android and iOS ports attempting to do the same thing - find Pokemon based on your location, but specifically developed for each platform. I felt a sad thud inside, there's always someone who gets there first! I went through the code, and man was it brilliant :D All code right where it should be. They used another open source Java repository - a Java API for Go. I ended up spending an hour going through the Java API for Go. The code is neat, very well structured and the guys are super responsive to any queries. If you like OOP and feel a happy butterfly tickle your stomach whenever you read good code, read this. :)

Here's the list of repositories. I plan to contribute to the Android client as soon as I get placed from campus.*

APIs & Clients


iOS | PokeGo (The poor repo has ~100 stars while _all_ others have >500. iOS, iOS. Why develop for iOS.)

Have fun contributing! I sure will :D

*Yes. We have campus placements going on at DA-IICT. Sigh. Can't spend time on anything until I make sure I have a job before this semester ends. Double sigh.

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