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Overview of RESTful API Description Languages
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<p>RESTful (representational state transfer) API (application programming interface) DLs (description languages) are <a href="/facts/Formal_language/crDTyP8q">formal languages</a> designed to provide a structured description of a <a href="/facts/REST/Q58zfr5h">RESTful</a> <a href="/facts/Web_API/oVloUoIe">web API</a> that is useful both to a human and for automated machine processing. API description languages are sometimes called <a href="/facts/Interface_description_language/FpByLf4X">interface description languages</a> (IDLs). The structured description might be used to generate documentation for human <a href="/facts/Programmer/WGTS1Jv9">programmers</a>; such documentation may be easier to read than free-form documentation, since all documentation generated by the same tool follows the same formatting conventions. Additionally, the description language is usually precise enough to allow automated generation of various software artifacts, like libraries, to access the API from various programming languages, which takes the burden of manually creating them off the programmers. </p>