|
||
| WinAPI | ||
Basically, it is a whole set of implementation specific DLL hosted functions,
which are accessible through any development environments (such as VB,
Delphi and now MMB). The main API functions reside in three system DLL
files, which are located on every computer that is using the Windows operating
system. There are many more DLLs which are accessible through the Windows Operating System; which are separated into numerous other system DLL files Microsoft bundled all of the API functions into system DLL's so that they were easily accessible for developers from a number of programming languages. One advantage of using the Windows API is that each function is highly optimised, and usually written in C/C++, meaning that they are a lot faster than using the standard set of functions available in other development systems. There are literally thousands of API functions available throughout the numerous Windows API DLL libraries. Almost everything that Windows can do is listed as an API function, they can be used to perform almost any Windows task; from shutting down a computer to installing a printer. Because of the multi-threaded mature of the Windows operating system, several programs can access the Windows API simultaneously. Windows API functions are very fast and powerful. I would recommend that you only use Windows API functions if the task you are trying to implement is not available as a regular MMB function or statement. Of course, it sometimes occurs, the task that you want to implement may not be available as a Windows API function. References: For more information on what every Win API function does visit the following sites:
|