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In windows APIs and various other libraries where I have seen multiple entry points to methods I have noticed the use of the Ex abbreviation in scenarios such as MyApiCall and MyApiCallEx.
My assumption is that this stands for Extension or Extra could someone please confirm?
Any history on why Ex was chosen rather then MyApiCall2 or similar would also be appreciated.
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The Windows API (application programming interface) allows user-written programs to interact with Windows, for example to display things on screen and get input from mouse and keyboard. All Windows programs except console programs must interact with the Windows API regardless of the language.
The System Services APIs give applications access to the resources of the computer and the features of the underlying operating system, such as memory, file systems, devices, processes, and threads.
The Windows API (Win32) is focused mainly on the programming language C in that its exposed functions and data structures are described in that language in recent versions of its documentation.
I was under the impression it stood for extended, as in a more detailed interface for that particular library.
For example, CreateFile with 4 parameters is the typical version and CreateFileEx with 17 is the version offering more control and finer detail over how the file is opened, what occurs if it doesn't exist, etc, and is thus extended.
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