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Connectix was about API not ABI | 152 comments | Create New Account

Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.

Connectix was about API not ABI

Authored by: xtifr on Wednesday, May 30 2012 @ 06:18 PM EDT

An ABI is an API that happens to be for machine-level language (binary). It's a specialized API.

Interesting. I agree and disagree. An ABI may function as an API if you're programming at the machine level, and in such a case, it's really a difference that makes no difference, which is why I partly agree. It's like saying that 'a' and 0x61 are the same. At the bit level, that's true, but conceptually, they're totally distinct. Likewise, an API is still what you use to create a program, while an ABI is what the program uses to run. The difference is purely conceptual in your example case, but it still matters.

I do agree that the fact that they can be different views of the same thing really emphasizes there's no way to claim either is more copyrightable than the other.

---
Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for it makes them soggy and hard to light.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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