This does mean that there's going to be lots of different APIs out there, some very broad in scope and nature, and others with a very specific role. That's because they effectively hide all the background minutiae and inner workings of the computer system from the programmer and just lets them have access to the tools they need.

This might seem like it's quite a restrictive thing, but APIs help in making programming much easier. They set the rules on what requests for data can be made, define how to make those requests, declare the format that the data must be in, and so on. In the case of an API, a lot more is going behind the scenes than just passing data about. a mouse sending input signals to a laptop, using a USB socket), but they're more likely to be two-way. USB) or software, as it is in this case.Įssentially, the interface allows the computing elements to send information to each other sometimes it's a one-way bridge (e.g. This bridge can be in the form of hardware (e.g. In the world of computing, an interface is something that acts as a bridge between two or more aspects of a computing system. The term API stands for ' Application Programming Interface' but, as we'll soon see, it isn't just for making applications (or to give them their full name, application programs - apps, for short).

Join us as we explain just what an API is, and take a quick look at where and how they get used. We're talking about APIs - the golden fleece to programmers around the world. You've probably heard of these, you might have even used them before, but one thing is certain: everyone who's ever used a computer will have run a piece of software that's made good use of them.

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