An application programming interface ( API ) is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. An API may include specifications for routines , data structures , object classes , and variables. An API specification can take many forms, including an International Standard such as Posix or vendor documentation such as the Microsoft Windows API , or the libraries of a programming language, e.g. Standard Template Library in C++ or Java API . An API differs from an ABI (Application Binary Interface) in that the former is source code based while the latter is a binary interface.
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