> - What separates you from existing API Marketplaces (e.g. Algorithmia)
Macgyver differs from Mashape in that we host the program and actually run the program against the data (processing). This allows us to have more control over verifying the up-time as well as any changes to the program which might affect an end user's application (we do our own versioning so any new changes will be pushed as an incremental version) as to mitigate negative impact to clients already using the API.
We differ from Algorithmia in that we don't require you to learn our development tools or programming languages. We offer custom runtimes. We function by specifying -
1. How we will supply data to your program
2. The runtime you want us to use
3. How we expect the program to respond
But ultimately we don't care how your program does that or in what language it is programmed.
> - Do you have programmer APIs other than JS?
Not sure what you mean by this, the API takes and returns JSON but it can be used with any programming language.
> - From your blog I am assuming you use docker for running the algorithms? Will the docker images be made open too?
The programs are executed inside docker containers. We are still architecting the optimal workflow for our publishers and if that means making the macgyver docker image public we will do that but that is still TBD. We may just offer a sandbox environment for publishers to test in.
> - How much effort do you think it would take me to transform an existing algorithm that I have to be available in your system?
It's likely going to be easier than any other tool. We are going to work on providing more documentation and releasing the API docs very shortly - but the gist of the process is that you can move your algorithm program (or directory) into a folder in a standard linux box and from there you will just need to modify how you get your input data and how you format your output data, and specifying a runtime for macgyver to call on your main program file.
Thank you for the interest!
::Tim