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by srvmshr 1418 days ago
APIs, frameworks & libraries are so often being used interchangeably & its getting confusing for us too, specially if planning for a new feature to integrate

"is it a framework? is it a library? is it a API" whenever I have a cursory glance at a product on HN/Github or likewise
2 comments
OkayPhysicist 1417 days ago
APIs are simply a property of any system you want a program to interact with. The confusion comes from the synecdoche of referring to web applications that are only interacted with via their API as APIs.

The more interesting one is frameworks and libraries. There's a gradient between them based, IMO, on how opinionated they are. Working with a framework means filling in the blanks, e.g. "When we recieve an http request to this endpoint, this application code should run" in contrast to a library which is just a barrel of functions to call. But that's a fuzzy line.

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tpxl 1418 days ago
I mean, a library has an API (the public facing stuff you're supposed to use), a framework probably also has an API (or rather, a bunch of them), and a service also probably has a Web API (assuming you're programming against said service).
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srvmshr 1418 days ago
Yes, but its not me getting confused. But the documentation is a mess many times
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