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confusing when they use the same word to mean multiple things | 396 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
confusing when they use the same word to mean multiple things
Authored by: YurtGuppy on Wednesday, April 25 2012 @ 07:59 AM EDT
API
Application Programming Interface

Application: A layer of operation which gives some degree of separation from
other similar operations; as opposed to System or Network. Modern computer
systems allow multiple applications to exist at the same time, each with a high
degree of separation from all others.

Programming: To be used by other programs; as opposed to a user interface or an
I/O interface.

Interface: Border between two realms, a zone of interaction and the protocols
that are required to perform communication (data transfer) between the two
realms.

You can buy a book which tells you the API. You can write programs which make
use of the API. But you cannot run the program until you have a library which
implements the API.

The lawyers from Oracle seem to use the same term (API) to refer to the book,
the concept of the interface (the information contained in the book), and the
library.








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