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<li id="publishDate">Last Published: 2018-10-21<span class="divider">|</span>

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<li class=""><a href=".././" title="usb4java">usb4java</a><span class="divider">/</span></li>

<li class="active ">Quick start</li>

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<a href="http://libusb.info/" class="externalLink" title="libusb">libusb</a></li>

<li class="pull-right"><a href="http://javax-usb.sourceforge.net/" class="externalLink" title="javax-usb">javax-usb</a></li>

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<li><a href="../quickstart/libusb.html" title="Low-level (libusb) API"><span class="none"></span>Low-level (libusb) API</a></li>

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<h2><a name="Quick_start"></a>Quick start</h2>

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<h3><a name="Choose_an_API"></a>Choose an API</h3>

<p>usb4java provides two different APIs you can choose from:</p>

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<li><a href="./libusb.html">The low-level (libusb) API</a></li>

<li><a href="./javax-usb.html">The high-level (javax-usb) API</a></li></ul>

<p>The low-level API closely follows the C API of the <a class="externalLink" href="http://libusb.info/">libusb</a> project. This API has the advantage that it provides the same functionality as libusb does. And if you know the C API of libusb then you will most likely feel right at home when using this API with usb4java. It is also easy to convert existing C libusb programs into Java. The disadvantage is that you will have a hard time changing your code when you later switch to a different Java USB library. And as a pure Java developer you may dislike the API because it is too low-level (For example most methods return error codes instead of throwing exceptions).</p>

<p>The high-level API simply implements the <a class="externalLink" href="http://javax-usb.sourceforge.net/">javax-usb (JSR80) API</a>. One advantage of this API is that it is implementation-independent. So it is easy to switch to a different javax-usb implementation later without changing your code. Another advantage is that this API is object oriented and is much easier to use for Java developers. The disadvantage is that the javax-usb specification is very old (maybe even abandoned) and may lack support for some newer USB techniques provided by the low-level API.</p></div></div>

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