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doc: Clarify positioning versus N-API #288

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doc: Clarify positioning versus N-API
mhdawson Jun 19, 2018
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squash: address comments.
mhdawson Jun 21, 2018
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52 changes: 32 additions & 20 deletions README.md
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# **Node.js API (N-API) Package**

This package contains **header-only C++ wrapper classes** for the
**ABI-stable Node.js API** also known as **N-API**, providing C++ object
model and exception handling semantics with low overhead. It guarantees
backward compatibility when used with older versions of Node.js that do
not have N-API built-in.

N-API is an API for building native addons. It is independent from the
underlying JavaScript runtime (e.g. V8 or ChakraCore) and is maintained as
part of Node.js itself. This API will be Application Binary Interface (ABI)
stable across versions and flavors of Node.js. It is intended to insulate
# **node-addon-api module**
This module contains **header-only C++ wrapper classes** which simplify
the use of the C based [N-API](https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/docs/api/n-api.html)
provided by Node.js when using C++. It provides a C++ object model
and exception handling semantics with low overhead.

N-API is an ABI stable C interface provided by Node.js for building native
addons. It is independent from the underlying JavaScript runtime (e.g. V8 or ChakraCore)
and is maintained as part of Node.js itself. It is intended to insulate
native addons from changes in the underlying JavaScript engine and allow
modules compiled for one version to run on later versions of Node.js without
recompilation. N-API guarantees the **API** and **ABI** compatibility across
different versions of Node.js. So if you switched to a different version of
Node.js, you would not need to reinstall or recompile the native addon.
recompilation.

APIs exposed by N-API are generally used to create and manipulate JavaScript
values. Concepts and operations generally map to ideas specified in the
**ECMA262 Language Specification**.
The `node-addon-api` module, which is not part of Node.js, preserves the benefits
of the N-API as it consists only of inline code that depends only on the stable API
provided by N-API. As such, modules built against one version of Node.js
using node-addon-api should run without having to be rebuilt with newer versions
of Node.js.

As new APIs are added to N-API, node-addon-api must be updated to provide
wrappers for those new APIs. For this reason node-addon-api provides
methods that allow callers to obtain the underlying N-API handles so
direct calls to N-API and the use of the objects/methods provided by
node-addon-api can be used together. For example, in order to be able
to use an API for which the node-add-api does not yet provide a wrapper.

APIs exposed by node-addon-api are generally used to create and
manipulate JavaScript values. Concepts and operations generally map
to ideas specified in the **ECMA262 Language Specification**.

- **[Setup](#setup)**
- **[API Documentation](#api)**
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -47,6 +55,10 @@ values. Concepts and operations generally map to ideas specified in the
<a name="api"></a>

### **API Documentation**

The following is the documentation for node-addon-api (NOTE:
still a work in progress as its not yet complete).

- [Basic Types](doc/basic_types.md)
- [Array](doc/array.md)
- [Symbol](doc/symbol.md)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -86,7 +98,7 @@ values. Concepts and operations generally map to ideas specified in the

### **Examples**

Are you new to **N-API**? Take a look at our **[examples](https://github.com/nodejs/abi-stable-node-addon-examples)**
Are you new to **node-addon-api**? Take a look at our **[examples](https://github.com/nodejs/abi-stable-node-addon-examples)**

- **[Hello World](https://github.com/nodejs/abi-stable-node-addon-examples/tree/master/1_hello_world/node-addon-api)**
- **[Pass arguments to a function](https://github.com/nodejs/abi-stable-node-addon-examples/tree/master/2_function_arguments/node-addon-api)**
Expand All @@ -101,7 +113,7 @@ Are you new to **N-API**? Take a look at our **[examples](https://github.com/nod

### **Tests**

To run the **N-API** tests do:
To run the **node-addon-api** tests do:

```
npm install
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