Application Program Interface

programming (API, or "application programming interface")

The interface (calling conventions) by which an applicationprogram accesses operating system and other services. An

API is defined at source code level and provides a level of

abstraction between the application and the kernel (or

other privileged utilities) to ensure the portability of the

code.

An API can also provide an interface between a high levellanguage and lower level utilities and services which were

written without consideration for the calling conventions

supported by compiled languages. In this case, the API's main

task may be the translation of parameter lists from one format

to another and the interpretation of call-by-value and

call-by-reference arguments in one or both directions.

(1995-02-15)