|
}}
</ref>
===Operating Systems===
An API can specify the interface between an application and the [[operating system]].<ref name="Oreilly91">{{cite book|last1=Lewine|first1=Donald A.|title=POSIX Programmer's Guide|date=1991|publisher=O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.|page=1|url=ftp://gamma.sbin.org/pub/doc/books/OReilly_-_POSIX_Programmers_Guide.pdf|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref>
[[POSIX]], for example, specifies a set of common APIs that aims to enable an application written for a POSIX conformant operating system to be [[Compiler|compiled]] for another POSIX conformant operating system.
[[Linux]] and [[Berkeley Software Distribution]] are examples of operating systems that implement the POSIX APIs.<ref name="WestDedrick16">{{cite journal|last1=West|first1=Joel|last2=Dedrick|first2=Jason|title=Open source standardization: the rise of Linux in the network era|journal=Knowledge, Technology & Policy|date=2001|volume=14|issue=2|pages=88–112|url=http://www.joelwest.org/Papers/WestDedrick2001b.pdf|accessdate=2 August 2016|publisher=Springer}}</ref>
[[Microsoft]] has shown a strong commitment to a backward compatible API, particularly within their [[Windows API]] (Win32) library, such that older applications may run on newer versions of Windows using an executable-specific setting called "Compatibility Mode".<ref>
{{cite web
|author=Microsogt
|url=http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx
|title=Support for Windows XP
|publisher=Microsoft
|page=4
|date=October 2001
|deadurl=yes
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926235439/http://www.microsoft.com:80/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx
|archivedate=2009-09-26
|df=
}}</ref>
An API differs from an [[application binary interface]] (ABI) in that an API is source code based while an ABI is [[Binary file | binary]] based. For instance [[POSIX]] provides APIs, while the [[Linux Standard Base]] provides an ABI.<ref>{{cite web|
url=http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb/lsb-introduction|
title=LSB Introduction|
publisher=Linux Foundation|date=21 June 2012|
accessdate=2015-03-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|
first=Nick|
last=Stoughton|
url=https://db.usenix.org/publications/login/2005-04/openpdfs/standards2004.pdf|
title=Update on Standards|
publisher=[[USENIX]]|
format=PDF|date=April 2005|
accessdate=2009-06-04}}</ref>
===Remote APIs===
| 