The origins and purpose of OpenAPI
OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is a standardized, language-agnostic way to describe RESTful APIs. Think of OAS documents as clear contracts that spell out exactly what your API can do, just like we talked about in earlier chapters. OAS is a powerful tool that supports the API as a product concept by giving both humans and computers a clear, readable definition of your interface, without needing to dig through source code or separate documentation.
The story of OAS starts back in 2011 with the Swagger project, created by Tony Tam, who was working at the dictionary site Wordnik. Tam and his team were frustrated with documentation headaches and the challenge of generating client SDKs, so they created Swagger as a solution. Developers loved how it made API documentation interactive and easier to work with, and by 2014, Swagger 2.0 took things to the next level.
In 2015, SmartBear Software bought the Swagger project from Reverb Technologies and,...
