Hacker News Reader

Sometimes I download/clone all I need, then go offline. I'm always amazed by how good it feels to go offline!

I wasn't clear in my original comment: it's not that I require API docs (though they're nice), it's that I require the API itself, usually a REST web service, or in the case of mapping, a bunch of remote resources (images and JavaScript).

When you say you "download/clone", are you talking about just the docs, or do you actually clone the API locally?

For example, create a local, mock Twitter OAuth API so that you can program against the Twitter API without being online.

I'm genuinely curious. I like the idea of going offline, but it seems like it's not worth the effort if you're working on applications that are codependent on network APIs.

I run into this problem and my solution has been to block distracting sites. This gets me 90% of the value of being offline without taking required APIs offline.

I wrote this to help: https://github.com/bradjasper/focus

I was talking about the documentation - but for APIs, I create mocks.

For instance my work last week relies on an API that requires a VPN connection AND a windows machine.

I tested and mocked the API on windows, and now work offline, without the VPN nor Windows.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com