Windows Open Service Architecture
<architecture, library, microsoft> (WOSA) One of the mainstays of
Microsoft Windows: the ethos of
abstraction of core services.
For each extension, Windows
Open Services
Architecture defines an
API and an
SPI, as well as a universal interface (usually placed in a single
DLL) that both comply to.
These then
transparently let the
operating system speak to device drivers, database managers, and other low level entities.
These extensions include, among others,
ODBC (called the "crowning jewel of WOSA"),
TAPI, WOSA/XFS,
SAPI and
MAPI, and their supporting services, as well as the abstraction of access to printers, modems, and networking services, which run identically over
TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and
NetBEUI.