Re: Call for volunteers for C/C++ API liaison manager

Ted Lemon <ted.lemon@nominum.com> Fri, 02 May 2014 12:53 UTC

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Subject: Re: Call for volunteers for C/C++ API liaison manager
From: Ted Lemon <ted.lemon@nominum.com>
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Date: Fri, 02 May 2014 08:52:59 -0400
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References: <EB423B81-41F2-480D-B1EE-80E1753E1CDB@iab.org> <53618BDD.1080900@isi.edu> <5361B341.4000200@gmail.com> <5361B9FF.4020107@isdg.net> <20140502073200.GA5957@nic.fr>
To: Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@nic.fr>
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On May 2, 2014, at 3:32 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@nic.fr> wrote:
> In my experience, so called "high-level" API are not high-level at
> all, they always assume a specific programming style, typically the
> one of the language the author prefers.

The point is not to describe in detail the entry points to an API, but rather to describe the minimum functionality that an API should provide in order to allow the language and programs written in it to fully exploit the protocol.   In MIF we talk about the low-level API and the high-level API; the low-level API is just a list of functions the API has to provide; the high-level API is built on that, and is likely language-specific.   You can't build the language-specific API from just the abstract low-level API—you need to understand the locking/threading behavior of your language, and the memory allocation strategy, and so on.