|
|
|
| Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 08:27 AM EDT |
| [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 09:18 AM EDT |
| Correct. Any mention of "header files" in this context is very misleading and
confusing. C and C++ have "header files". No other computer language does.
But API is a concept that applies to all computer languages. Java in particular
not only has no separate header files, it has no separate documentation files
(the Javadoc comments are in the same file as the API and the
implementation).
So if the API is just part of the same file that contains the
implementation, what it is? The world's authority on Java APIs explains it in this video.
The API for a Java class consist of the signatures of public methods and
fields. So that is perhaps a bit technical and hard to explain. But it does
not help to avoid the issue and mention "header files" which refers to some
other language entirely. Also even C and C++ don't have to use header files.
Header files are just a convention. There is no support for them in the
language.
Here is an attempt to explain API. When you use (as opposed to
program) a class, or object, or method, what you use is the API ... What am I
thinking? Judge Alsup gave a perfectly good explanation in his
opinion and there's really no need to add to it. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
|
|
|
