What is exactly API and why we call it like that? I am learning web development, and always come across APIs. I would love to learn it through an analogy.
In: Engineering
When you use your computer, you use a user interface (UI). Sometimes you type commands into a terminal, and there, you’re using a command-line interface or CLI. When the software you use needs to interact with other software, it uses the application programming interface, or API.
It can be helpful to think of software applications, or computers in general, as users, just like human end-users. When humans are users, they need a UI, or CLI. When a computer, or other software application is the user, it needs an API.
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