application program interface
(computer science) A language that enables communication between computer programs, in particular between application programs and control programs. Abbreviated API.
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(computer science) A language that enables communication between computer programs, in particular between application programs and control programs. Abbreviated API.
An application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that an operating system or
library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by
computer programs.[1]
An API is similar to an application binary interface (ABI) in that both specify details of how two independent computer programs can interact. However, an API is typically defined at a higher level (i.e., in terms of a programming language that can be compiled when an application is built, rather than an explicit low level description of how data is laid out in memory). For example, the Linux Standard Base is an ABI, while POSIX is an API.[2]
The software that provides the functionality described by an API is said to be an implementation of the API. The API itself is abstract, in that it specifies an interface and the behavior of the identifiers specified in that interface, it does not specify how the behavior might be implemented.
There are two general kinds of API publishing policies that are often encountered:
It is to be expected that companies base their choice of publishing policy on maximizing benefit to themselves.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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