Interface

A radio with buttons - user can interact with the machine without knowing what’s behind the scene. From physical objects evolving to digital products:

GUI: Graphic User Interface

In cell phones, we interact with a music player by scrolling and clicking buttons - GUI. We don’t have to know the mechanism behind it, the code or whatnot. But you can get the job done.

API: Application Programming Interface

When we say API, most likely we are referring to the web based API. It helps the web programmer to write programs much more easily without having to write every single code from scratch. For example, in python, like many other programming languages, there’s string API: 'abc'.upper() to make ‘abc’ to an uppercase string. But the programmer doesn’t have to worry about the mechanism behind that code.

REST: Representational State Transfer - Tutorials

Coined by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation (2000), REST architectural style describes 6 constraints:

  • Uniform Interface
  • Stateless
  • Cacheable
  • Client-Server
  • Layered System
  • Code on Demand (optional)

ACNY:

URL - Universal Resource Locator

URI - Universal Resource Identifier

http - HyperText Transfer Protocol