Forem: Arma Sahar

The Universal Handshake: Why the Modern World Runs on APIs

Arma Sahar — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 02:15:44 +0000

While you’re sleeping, your weather app is whispering to a satellite server in Nebraska.

Yes, you read that right. If you look at your phone right now, you aren’t just looking at a piece of hardware; you are looking at a central hub for thousands of digital handshakes. Every time you check the weather, log into an app using your Google account, or pay for a chai via GPay, a silent, high-speed conversation is happening in the background.

This constant, invisible chatter is what makes the modern world feel "smart." And all this chatter is happening because of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

A Bit of History

To understand why we need APIs, we have to go back to 1951.

A guy named Maurice Wilkes. He’s working on one of the world’s first computers, the EDSAC. It’s the size of a room, and it’s incredibly slow. Maurice realized something that every junior dev eventually learns: Writing the same code twice is a nightmare.

He was tired of manually writing the math to calculate a "square root" every single time he needed it. So, he had a "eureka" moment. He wrote the math once, put it on a special shelf (a library), and told the computer: "Whenever you need a square root, don't ask me. Just use that library."

That was the first Digital Handshake.

Fast forward to the year 2000. The internet was growing, but it was messy. Every company was a closed island. Salesforce changed everything. They realized that if they let other people "plug into" their data, they didn't have to build every feature themselves, other people would do it for them. They opened the first Web API, and the internet finally started talking to itself.

What is an API?

To understand an API, forget the complicated diagrams. Think of a USB-C port.

You have a laptop, a pair of headphones, and a charger. All three are made by different companies, using different internal parts and different languages. But they all "talk" to each other because they agree on the shape and the rules of the USB-C port.

An API is that port. It is a Contract. It says: If you plug into me and send this specific signal, I promise to give you this specific result. You don't need to know how the laptop’s brain works; you just need to know how to plug into the port.

In the tech world, this is called Abstraction. It means I can change the entire engine of my app, but as long as the plug stays the same, you won't even notice I changed anything.

The Whisper Logic: When you "Like" a post, your phone whispers a request to the server: Arma Sahar interacted with you post by liking it. Permission to update? The server checks the baggage system (Database), updates the ledger, and whispers back: Permission granted. Turn the heart red.

This is the "Contract. The API promises that if the client sends a specific set of data, the server will return a specific result. The moment you break that contract by changing a variable name or a data format the puppet's strings are cut, and the app dies.

APIs in the Wild (The Desi Version)

You are using APIs every single day, especially in the Digital India era.

The Swiggy/Zomato Magic: Ever wonder how Swiggy knows exactly where your rider is? Swiggy doesn't own satellites. They "plug into" the Google Maps API. They basically pay Google to use their "brain" to find your house so your biryani arrives hot.
The UPI Revolution: This is the ultimate Indian API success story. When you scan a QR code with PhonePe or GPay, the app doesn't actually have your money. It sends a "whisper" via an API to the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), which then talks to your bank. The bank says Haan, iske paas paisa hai and the transaction is done.
BookMyShow: When you book a movie ticket, BookMyShow uses an API to ask the cinema's local system: "Is Seat K-12 empty for Jawan?" The cinema shouts back YES, if the seats are available and the booking is confirmed.

The Big Picture

We are living in the age of Connectivity. We no longer build software as one giant, lonely machine. We build it like a Cricket Team.

One player (API) handles the payments, another handles the maps, and another handles the login. An API is the ultimate team player. It’s the handshake that lets a small startup in a garage in India talk to a massive server in California to solve a problem for a user in a village in Lucknow.

Once you understand APIs, you realize the Cloud isn't some mysterious thing in the sky, it’s just a billion tiny, polite conversations happening every second to make our lives easier.

SoftwareEngineering #SystemDesign #APIs #DigitalIndia #Backend #CodingLife #TechSimplified

I call it language of cloud

Arma Sahar — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:08:57 +0000

Language of Cloud

Arma Sahar ・ Jan 25

#webdev #programming #javascript #devops

Language of Cloud

Arma Sahar — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 15:13:59 +0000

If you look at your phone or laptop, you are most probably looking at only the colors and animations and few buttons. If you think that all the data of your WhatsApp chat, snaps, photos are living inside your devices, then you're wrong.

Your device is mostly empty. Because it is just a client and a client is nothing more than a very expensive and smart looking remote control.

Let's see how computes talk to each other on internet using, I call it Language of Cloud, but the industry calls it Client Server Architecture

Apparently Client Server architecture was born from simple realisation, i.e Why should one single device should do the hardwork of heavy lifting? In old days, if you want to updated any single thing you have to buy a whole new disc, just because the brain, "the logic/server" lived on your PC, which did not help in scaling at all.

So.. Their was a shift wherein they split the software into 2 personas:

The data, the logic, the server was put in a high security warehouses with massive power, which is called as Server.

The buttons, the colors and screen are in your hand which is called as Client.

The language of cloud is the conversation between the client and the server.

When you like a photo on instagram, your phone doesn't actually do anything except send a tiny request across the cables across the ocean to the server of instagram and you/your phone is the client here. The request says: user _armasahar clicked the heart button on post #82u8e8_

The server receives that request and updates the massive database and responds back changed the button color to red, and added the post to liked posts category.

This is how Client Server talks and it is called as Client Server Architecture.

To understand the language and deliver it with etiquette we must follow some set of rules like Grammar right?

This applies to the Client Server Architecture as well, so that the request and responses should be formatted and can be understood by both the client and server.

And it is possible through a protocol called as HTTP(Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).

HTTP helps you to format the message, by using a standard. It follows three things:

It sees what do we want to do? And the whole internet is divided into mainly 4 types of actions (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). So HTTP check which kind of an Method/action do we want to use.
The context of the message, it sets the Metadata like if it is html, json etc. and this is set through Headers
The data itslef which it captures the information in the Body.

Quick tip: Open your browser, go to any website, right click on the page, inspect, and click the Network tab. Refresh the page. Look at the Status and Method columns. You are now seeing the Language of the Cloud in real-time.

Did you knew this??

Arma Sahar — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 17:37:21 +0000

Arma Sahar

Nov 28 '25

Temporal Dead Zone in JavaScript

#javascript #beginners #tutorial #node

Comments

3 min read

Temporal Dead Zone in JavaScript

Arma Sahar — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:48:05 +0000

Overview: Did you know that JavaScript read your code not once, but twice. In the first read it scans all the variable and function declarations and allocate memory for all of them and no matter wherever it is declared, those declaration moves to top of their current scope before the code starts getting executed. This is called Hoisting

What do I mean by JavaScript read my code not for once, but twice?
JavaScript follows two phase processing model for executing code.

Memory creation phase: In this phase the JS engine scans the entire codebase before executing anything it allocates the memory for all the variable and function declarations. var in declared as undefined, let & const are uninitialised. In function declarations the entire function body is stored in memory.

Code Execution Phase: This is when JavaScript engine executes code line by line. During this phase actual values are assigned to the variables that were stored in memory earlier as undefined or uninitiated.

Hoisting means you can sometimes use variables and functions at top even if those variables and functions are declared at the end of the code.

Hoisting is JavaScript's default behaviour of moving the declaration to the top before execution due to it's two phase processing.

Let's have a look at Hoisting of Variables:

Hoisting of variable

Hoisting of "var" keyword:

In the above case, var a- The declaration is moved to the top because of the JS two phase processing. In the memory creation space the code block has scanned for all the variables present in it are allocated a space in the memory whose value is automatically saved as undefined.

The value which we assigned to the variable stays exactly where we wrote it, its just that the memory has the variable stored in it.

Now in the code execution phase the codeblock checks the code line by line and executes it.

same case with the var b = 2. First the memory saves b = undefined and then when the code is being executed it will assign the value 2 to the variable b.

In case of `let` and `const`

These variables are also hoisted but they are not initialised. Instead, they are placed in a state called Temporal Dead Zone. Any attempt to access them before their actual declaration line in the code will result in a ReferenceError.

What is Temporal Dead Zone here?

It's always a mistake to try & use a variable before it has been explicitly declared & assigned a value. Hence why Temporal Dead Zone was introduced, where let and const variables are also hoisted (The engine knows that these variables exists in code while memory allocation phase) but they are deliberately not initialised.

When JS engine scans a codeblock and if it finds let & const declarations, It creates a binding (the association between the variable name and a memory location) for the variable.

During the execution phase - If during execution, it encounters a line that tries to occur let or const variable before its declaration line is reached, the engine checks if the variable is in Temporal Dead Zone. If it is found, it immediately throws a ReferenceError.

Once the engine reaches the actual let or const declaration line, then the variable is initialized & it is also removed from Temporal Dead Zone, from this point onwards it can be accessed normally within its scope.

JavaScript reads your code twice - Hoisting in var, let & const

Arma Sahar — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:33:27 +0000

What do I mean by JavaScript read my code not for once, but twice?
JavaScript follows two phase processing model for executing code.

Hoisting means you can sometimes use variables and functions at top even if those variables and functions are declared at the end of the code.

Hoisting is JavaScript's default behaviour of moving the declaration to the top before execution due to it's two phase processing.

Let's have a look at Hoisting of Variables:

Hoisting of variable

Hoisting of "var" keyword:

The value which we assigned to the variable stays exactly where we wrote it, its just that the memory has the variable stored in it.

Now in the code execution phase the codeblock checks the code line by line and executes it.

same case with the var b = 2. First the memory saves b = undefined and then when the code is being executed it will assign the value 2 to the variable b.

In case of `let` and `const`

What is Temporal Dead Zone here?

When JS engine scans a codeblock and if it finds let & const declarations, It creates a binding (the association between the variable name and a memory location) for the variable.

A smart move or a silly one?

Arma Sahar — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:24:53 +0000

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Arma Sahar ・ Oct 14

#webdev #programming #javascript #beginners

Was it a dumb move or a smart one?

Arma Sahar — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:24:06 +0000

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Arma Sahar ・ Oct 14

#webdev #programming #javascript #beginners

This is what I enjoy doing!

Arma Sahar — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 09:23:01 +0000

Arma Sahar

Oct 14 '25

Step by step guide to make a Git server

#webdev #programming #javascript #beginners

Comments

4 min read

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Arma Sahar — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:30:31 +0000

What is a server?
Server means which listens to request coming from a different computer and responds back to the request.

For example:
You go and search on Google, that means you are making a request from your system to Google's server.

Then from somewhere another computer replies:

As the web pages are hosted on Google, you get a response back from Google's server. That computer which listens, processes, and responds is the "server"!

Servers differ based on what they serve

Like Web Server - serves Web pages, File server - Lets you store and access files, Database server - Stores and manages structured data, in the same way
GIT SERVER Stores git repositories and handles push/pull requests just like how Github does.

The difference between all of these is just the software we use to build a server and port number.

So today I am going to make my own Git Server, but why do I need it in the first place? What's the importance of having our own Git servers?

Recently we have been hearing a lot about many vibe coders are pushing their API keys on Github repositories.

And also what if Github crashes what are you gonna do?

Have you ever seen large companies push their codes on Github? Where do they store their codebases?

Think...think... till then I will make my Git server and share my point of view.

Oh by the way!
A general Question: What is the significance of "Origin"

Comment down the answer below!

I am going to use my Virtual Machine as my Git Server and from my local terminal, I'll access the server to push and pull the code.

Note: Before starting with Git server setup, I created a separate user called as Git & Generated SSH key for it.

Step 1: Switch the user to git

Step 2: Check if you have Git installed

Step 3: Create a directory for the git server and go to that directory

That's it this is going to be that space where you are going to create a new repository and push the code here. Just in case if you are wondering how is it going to work, then let me clarify;

What is a Repository?
It is just a folder on Github, ain't it? So just like how we go and create a new repo on Github we do it here locally.

Step 4: Initialise a bare git repository

This will create

/home/gitserver/myFirstRepo.git/
├── branches/
├── config
├── description
├── HEAD
├── hooks/
├── info/
└── refs/

Now as I have setup the Git server on my Virtual Machine, I will be connecting to it via SSH.

ssh git@<Virtual Machine's IP Address
I made sure you have ssh enabled and active on the virtual Machine.

Once I get connected I will be shown like this on my local terminal (!Virtual Machine)

This is just to check if my local machine is able to access my SSH connection from my Virtual Machine.

Now I am going to push few files from my local terminal to the Git server. Currently I am here:

Now I am going to follow the same git commands, which we use to push the code on Github.

I have initialised git in my directory

The next step is we add the remote repository (git-server's path) to the folder. Now watch carefully when I add the repository, their's a slight difference in it:

TA DAAA!!

Did you notice that I didn't use git remote add "origin", instead I chose to write gitServer. That means Origin has no specific significance neither it is by default. Its like a variable name for your repository.

Okay so final test of this server! Let's check if I can push the code.

The OG commands:
Git add && git commit:

and Now I am going to push it into the repository which is on Git server

Let's check!!

Here you go, my repo has been updated with the pushed code!

As this was my first commit on the bare repository hence I did not had to merge.

So why make your own Git server?
Because using GitHub is convenient, but it’s still someone else’s computer right!?

When you push code to GitHub, you’re trusting them with everything: their servers to stay online, their policies not to change, their security to keep your data private.

If GitHub deletes your repo by any chance, it’s gone unless you’ve backed it up.

Having your own Git server means; you have control over backups, you decide who can access it, you decide when to update or migrate.

I have mentioned above about “vibe coders pushing their API keys!”

That’s exactly why public Git hosting is risky: Git’s history is permanent.. even if you delete a key, it’s still available somewhere in previous commits.

Or attackers use bots that scans GitHub in real time for exposed .env or API keys. Once compromised, attackers can steal data, send emails, or any other kind of malicious activity

Anything can happen, so safe side have your own git server and for backup or secondary source use Github.

Thanks for reading!

Did you knew this before?

Arma Sahar — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:42:19 +0000

Git Exposed!

Arma Sahar ・ Sep 30

#coding #opensource #webdev #beginners

Did you know this?

Arma Sahar — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 11:37:32 +0000

Git Exposed!

Arma Sahar ・ Sep 30

#coding #opensource #webdev #beginners

Forem: Arma Sahar

The Universal Handshake: Why the Modern World Runs on APIs

A Bit of History

What is an API?

APIs in the Wild (The Desi Version)

The Big Picture

SoftwareEngineering #SystemDesign #APIs #DigitalIndia #Backend #CodingLife #TechSimplified

I call it language of cloud

Language of Cloud

Arma Sahar ・ Jan 25

Language of Cloud

Did you knew this??

Temporal Dead Zone in JavaScript

Temporal Dead Zone in JavaScript

Hoisting of variable

In case of let and const

JavaScript reads your code twice - Hoisting in var, let & const

Hoisting of variable

In case of let and const

A smart move or a silly one?

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Arma Sahar ・ Oct 14

Was it a dumb move or a smart one?

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Arma Sahar ・ Oct 14

This is what I enjoy doing!

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Step by step guide to make a Git server

Did you knew this before?

Git Exposed!

Arma Sahar ・ Sep 30

Did you know this?

Git Exposed!

Arma Sahar ・ Sep 30

In case of `let` and `const`

In case of `let` and `const`