Is “Application Programming Interface” a bad name?
- by Taylor Hawkes
Application programming interface seems like a bad name for what it is.
Is there a reason it was named such? I understand that people used to call them Advanced Programming Interfaces and then renamed to Application Programming Interface. Is that why it is poorly named?
Why is it not named Application (to) Programmer Interface. I guess I'm just confused of the meaning behind that name?
I write more about my confusion around the name here: BREAKING DOWN THE WORD “APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE”
This is a very confusing word. We mostly understand what the word Interface means, but “Application Programming”, what even is that. Honestly I'm confused. Is that suppose to be two words like “Application”, “Programming” and then the “Interface” is suppose to mean between the two? Like would a “Computer Human Interface” be an interface between a “Computer” and a “Human” (monitor , keyboard, mouse ) or is a “Computer Human” a real thing - perhaps the terminator. So a CHI is our boy Kyle Reese who is the only way we are able to work with the computer human.
I think more likely “Application Programming Interface” was simply poorly named and doesn't really make sense. It was originally called an “Advanced Programming Interface” , but perhaps being a bit to ostentatious merged into the now wildly accepted “Application Programming Interface”. So now, not wanting to change an acronym has confused the living heck out everyone....
Any thoughts or clarification would be great, I'm giving a lecture on this topic in a month, so I would prefer not to BS my way through it.
