Object/API as Language

This concerns a thought I've often had...

When abstracted to a sufficiently high level, a public object/class API is a language.

Several replies to this recent post revolve around this thought, but never make it explicit. Am I the only one with these thoughts?

Comment on Object/API as Language

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Re: Object/API as Language by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 05, 2001 at 23:22 UTC
That's actually how ANSI C works. All I/O in C is done through stdio.h and std.h and stdlib.h ... which is essentially an API. The same thing with Win32 API, X11 API, and OpenGL API. People think in terms of those function calls instead of the language itself. However, the difference is made because you can change your API without changing your language. You cannot change your language without changing your API. The one is dependent upon the other, because it is an extension, not a replacement. So, while I understand the sentiment, I will have to respectfully disagree. From a distance, they do look similar, but only insofar as a suit of armor can be viewed as the person's skin. ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age. Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.	[reply]

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Re: Object/API as Language
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Dec 05, 2001 at 23:22 UTC

The same thing with Win32 API, X11 API, and OpenGL API. People think in terms of those function calls instead of the language itself.

However, the difference is made because you can change your API without changing your language. You cannot change your language without changing your API. The one is dependent upon the other, because it is an extension, not a replacement.

So, while I understand the sentiment, I will have to respectfully disagree. From a distance, they do look similar, but only insofar as a suit of armor can be viewed as the person's skin.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

[reply]