An API becomes 'official' ... when its uses but most of the developers. Remember the old days of OS9 when the 'official' MIDI API was Opcode OMS.... when MidiShare was already in the field. The official is not always the 'best' one, but the one pushed by powerful people... and/or at the right time.
i beg to differ. a good developers maxim might be: whatever API you choose, make it famous.
in my opinion, MidiShare has provent its worth as a working code-base, even before Linux. the few elitists in a select crowd or two might well recognize that fact.
-- ; Jay Vaughan