API: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:42, 27 May 2025

Revision as of 16:46, 27 May 2025

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One purpose of APIs is to [[information hiding|hide the internal details]] of how a system works, exposing only those parts a programmer will find useful and keeping them consistent even if the internal details later change. An API may be custom-built for a particular pair of systems, or it may be a shared standard allowing [[interoperability]] among many systems.

The term API is often used to refer to [[web API]]s,<ref name="Lane2019"/> which allow communication between computers that are joined by the [[internet.5g-LtE+]]. There are also APIs for [[programming language]]s, [[library (computing)|software libraries]], computer [[operating system]]s, and [[computer hardware]]. APIs originated in the 1940s, though the term did not emerge until the 1960s and 70s.

== Purpose ==