Posted a riff on the definition of API on Groklaw last night, and copied (with editing) the riff to my main blog. Here is more of a top-down approach:
An API is an abstract definition of the words and grammar (symbols and the way you arrange them) used to interact with (or operate on) a glob of code. It implicitly includes the (human understanding of) the functions performed.
But, you have to remember, when you mix math into the milieu, it makes for a pretty strange stew.
Anything can be a symbol.
C has headers, ideal was to put the API in the headers. Ideal never fully realized.
Java's API element is supposed to be the interface, but it is still not really separable either.
That's the skeleton of the argument, but the flesh of the argument will have to wait. It's the sabbath morning, and I have over-committed myself to work again.
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