Perhaps they should be renamed to SPI - Service Programming Interface.
An API somewhat gives the impression of a programming interface that will execute valid instructions unconditionally and reliably. An SPI is different because it can fail, not because of a technical error, but because a human, for grins or otherwise, decided to cause the failure.
I think the definition of an "API" should be "can I, if necessary, replace it with my own implementation of the same thing?" If it isn't subject to the Liskov substitution principle it's something different.
Comments
The problem is: will we have real APIs in the future? because these APIs are a kind of scam.
Perhaps they should be renamed to SPI - Service Programming Interface.
An API somewhat gives the impression of a programming interface that will execute valid instructions unconditionally and reliably. An SPI is different because it can fail, not because of a technical error, but because a human, for grins or otherwise, decided to cause the failure.
I think the definition of an "API" should be "can I, if necessary, replace it with my own implementation of the same thing?" If it isn't subject to the Liskov substitution principle it's something different.