What is the Windows API?

What is the Windows API eBuilderz featured image

The Windows API is an interface used by developers when creating Windows applications. For developers to add capabilities to their Windows applications, they need a platform to interact with the Windows operating system. This is where the API comes in.

Software developers get access to several powerful routines when building Windows applications, one of the Windows API routines. The Windows API comes with a set of libraries filled with routines providing an interface to the Windows operating system.

Therefore, the Windows API can be defined as the interface between the applications and the Windows operating system. Developers can, in turn, use these set of routines to get statistics about the operating system and manipulate the performance of an application. These statistics may include things such as memory status and allocation.

Windows API-Win API

Windows API Functionality

Even though the Windows API might sound complicated, it is an API just like any other and works similarly. If you would like to learn how to use an API, RapidAPI has a complete guide with a step by step procedure on how to do so.

The Windows API functionality is categorized into:

1. User Interface

The Windows API user interface comes with the functionality used to manage the Windows operating system and some of its controls, such as scrollbars, buttons, and getting the keyboard and mouse input.

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2. Base Services

Base services provide developers with access to devices, file systems, threads and processes, error handling, Windows registry, and other fundamental resources that come with the Windows operating system.

3. Graphics Device Interface

Windows application developers depend on the graphics device interface when looking for the functionality that outputs graphical content to printers, monitors, and any other output devices connected to the Windows operating system.

4. Windows Shell

The Windows API comes with components that allow applications to access the Windows operating system shell’s functionality. These applications can also enhance and change the shell’s functionality to meet their requirements.

5. Common Control Library

Sometimes, the Windows operating system’s applications require access to advanced controls that come with the operating system. The advanced controls include tabs, progress bars, status bars, and toolbars, among others. The common control library provides this access.

6. Network Services

Some Windows applications cannot perform without networking services. For instance, some games should be connected to the internet for them to work. These applications use the Windows network services to gain access to the operating system’s networking capabilities.

7. Common Dialog Box Library

Windows applications require the capability to save and open files and change appearance such as font and color, among other things. They use the common dialog box library to get this capability. For example, when using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit a video, you might want to save your project to continue at a later date. This would not be possible without the common dialog box library.

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The Windows API’s basic function is to facilitate communication between an application and the Windows operating system. However, different Windows applications also need to communicate and share data between themselves. In such an instance, the Windows API is not used. In its place, Windows came with several technologies that work with the Windows API. These technologies include the DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange), the COM (Component Object Model), and the OLE (Object Linking and Embedding).

Final Words

Finally, the Windows API can be described as dynamic software. This is because its functions change every time a new service pack is released, such as releasing a new Windows API with a foldable functionality or even when a new Windows operating system version is released. It is also important to note that the Windows API’s desktop and server versions have major differences.

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Credit Card Debt Relief During the Pandemic

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The credit card bills that were accumulating started to pile up. People turned to a credit card consolidation loan. Before the pandemic, Americans had a 7-year line of credit card delinquencies. So with 26 million Americans applying for new unemployment benefits, this will be even worse when the next round of data starts to pour in.

The government has instructed the credit card companies to give forbearance, which means breathing room. No fees and penalties. And that is causing problems with credit card companies themselves. Nobody feels bad for them. They know that many people won’t be able to pay off for a long period of time. So the banks that have credit cards as their main business are going to take a hit.

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With forbearance, people have a breathing room of 3 months. However, many of these companies are quite tricky. They hold their interest charges but then they are creating a balloon payment at the other end of this.

And they are also shutting down landing facilities. It means that you might have thought your credit card limit was 12,000 dollars, and the issuer might say, “well, you know it’s 5,000 dollars.” And they can do that. It’s perfectly legal. But before you start running your credit card bill, be sure to understand your limit of Indigo Apply credit card and what the rules are surrounding this forbearance period.

If you are on edge, if you are unemployed, if you’ve been negatively impacted financially by this pandemic, it’s all about conserving your cash. So you shouldn’t be in a rush to pay any debt. People want to get rid of that debt. In normal times it’s ok to pay high interest. However, these are not normal times. We are at the extreme. You’ve got to conserve your cash for a rainy day. So the time to pay off debt will be when you understand your financial condition in the next 60 to 90 days.

For now, don’t be in a rush to pay off any of your debts, conserve your cash, do prioritize your bills. There is a great tool that you can use for this. You can find it on the website of the Consumer Financial Bureau. If you google “Bill priority tool CFPB,” you’ll see it there.

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The only highest priority for you that should be right now is feeding you and your family. Everything else is negotiable. This is not the time to worry about pulling yourself out of a credit card debt. Of course, if you have a job, it seems secure, you’ve got the cash flow, and you feel you can pay off that debt, feel free to do so—the same with the student loans. There is no interest being charged on Federal student loans until September 30th.

But if you don’t have 6 to 12 months of living expenses sitting in a safe place, make that the number one priority.

 

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Complete Guide on What is Static Keyword in Java

Complete Guide on What is Static Keyword in Java eBuilderz featured image

Keywords are reserved words in Java that can’t be used as identifiers. In Java, we have 57 keywords in total. Among those keywords is one called Static. In this article, we are going to look at how to apply static in various aspects of programming when using Java.

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