As I began to dive into programming, I kept running into this term, "API." I quickly learned that it stood for "Application Programming Interface." This told me exactly nothing about what it actually did.
I have now concluded that an API is a catch-all. Anything can be an API -- any little chunk of code, codebase, web service, or more. As far as I can tell, the dictionary definition might as well be:
API -- A useful codeish thingie of any size.
As proof of this conclusion, I offer two exhibits. 1. AppNexus. 2. A sentence from developer.android.com.
Exhibit 1 : The AppNexus API
I recently attended a meetup at which the topic was just "The AppNexus API." Apparently, this API called AppNexus is a project that makes online advertisements better somehow. In other words, it's a huge codebase worth millions of dollars, with 6 or more teams working on it. And yes, it's called an API.
Exhibit 2 : This Sentence
"A drawable resource is a general concept for a graphic that can be drawn to the screen and which you can retrieve with APIs such as getDrawable(int) or apply to another XML [...]"
Wait. Did they just call "getDrawable(int)" an API? Like, the same word that was used to describe a multi-million dollar codebase/tool?That's right. Apparently this method is an API.
Conclusion
I propose that the term "API" be replaced, in all instances, with hibberdefoo. Or perhaps glumbobber. It's the same number of syllables. It lends equivalent meaning to whatever description it's used within. In fact, it's probably MORE useful, since whoever hears the term can intuitively understand that it doesn't mean anything whatsoever.
#theEnd
No comments:
Post a Comment