library

In computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications. Libraries contain code and data that provide services to independent programs. This encourages the sharing and changing of code and data in a modular fashion, and eases the distribution of the code and data. Some executables are both standalone programs and libraries, but most libraries are not executable. Executables and libraries make references known as links to each other through the process known as linking, which is typically done by a linker. Most compiled languages have a standard library although programmers can also create their own custom libraries. Most modern software systems of 2009 provide libraries that implement the majority of system services. Such libraries have commoditized the services which a modern application requires. As such, most code used by modern applications is provided in these...