FAQs for Developers

Q: Where is all your dGC code?

A: The entirety of our Digital Growth Chart code is publicly available on GitHub, in the rcpch organisation. See https://github.com/rcpch.

Q: Why did you build the API in Python?

A: Python has become the de facto language of the scientific and bioinformatics communities. Also:

• Most of the packages needed were '1st party' i.e. maintained by the PSF. Therefore, they have a level of reliability and provenance.
• It's a nice and easily readable language whilst being powerful enough for our requirements. Python has everything needed for building an API, demo sites, web platforms, etc.
• It's accessible to clinicians who want to learn to code; it's easy enough to learn, it's taught in schools!

Quote

Marcus Baw wrote a blog post on 'Why Python...' which has a little more detail.