A Brief Guide on API Implementation

This section is dedicated to API Implementation Guide.

The POSIX standard describes an API that allows a wide range of common computing functions. However, making use of this requires re-compiling for each platform. On the other hand, a compatible API allows compiled object code to function without any changes to the system. Certainly, this benefits both software providers and users (where they may install older software on their new systems without purchasing upgrades). But,  this generally requires various software libraries to implement the necessary APIs.

Microsoft has shown a strong commitment to a backwards-compatible API. This is, particularly within their Windows API (Win32) library. IOn the same vein, this includes older applications may run on newer versions of Windows using an executable-specific setting called “Compatibility Mode”.

Similarly, Apple Inc. has shown less concern, breaking compatibility or implementing an API in a slower “emulation mode”. Further,  this allows greater freedom in development, at the cost of making older software obsolete.

Among Unix-like operating systems, there are many related but incompatible operating systems running on a common hardware platform. There have been several attempts to standardize the API such that software vendors may distribute one binary application for all these systems. However, to date, none of these has met with much success.

The Linux Standard Base is attempting to do this for the Linux platform, while many of the BSD Unixes, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. This further implements various levels of API compatibility for both backward compatibility (allowing programs written for older versions to run on newer distributions of the system) and cross-platform compatibility (allowing execution of foreign code without recompiling).

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