🚀 go-pugleaf

In<3b1c89a8_2@dnews>, Randall Raus <randallraus@altavista.com> writes:
>
>Below are six terms that I thought I understood, but recently 
>have heard used in ways that are different from my 
>understanding. They were used by people who seemed to be very 
>knowledgeable. These terms are as follows:
>
>1. Platform:
>
>The way I've understood this concept, is that a platform is the 
>combination of a computer and an operating system, i.e. a PC 
>running Windows is a platform, a PC running UNIX is a platform, 
>a workstation running Unix is a platform. At one of the Borland 
>conferences, 

 If, say, Windoze operating system could run on a couple of
 other machines than just Intel, then there would be two variations
 on the way in which -- e.g. -- C++ implemented "open( filename );".

 One is that this has a different C++ source definition when calling
 underlying Windows functions, compared to the source definition for
 calling Unix functions to implement it(#). The other is that these
 would be compiled into different machine-code on different machines.

>one of the platform seminars was about Java. Has 
>the ability of Java to run on any platform meant that it has 
>become a platform? Java can't run a program written in C.

 Kind of....  the way "open( filename );" is done is, as seen by you,
 standard everywhere. And so is the Java pseudo-code.  All differences
 between operating systems or instruction sets are hidden from you
 by burying them inside the "Java Virtual Machine", so that you 
 see the same virtual "Java platform" on every actual platform.

 (#) The list of these functions, or at least how to call them,
 is known as the "Application Program Interface".



>
>2. Syntax:
>
>  I also heard an operating system described as having the 
>ability to run applications (development tools) of different 
>syntaxes. I thought a syntax was something like ASN.1. 

            So did I
>Would C++ 
>on a Windows platform be described as having a different syntax 
>from C++ on a Linux platform. 
                                  No
>
>3. Application:
>
>Also, the way I've understood it is that a development tool (see 
>second line of above paragraph) is a utility that is used to 
>create an application, i.e. Jbuilder 4.0 can be used to create a 
>Java application. In other words, the final product is the 
>application, not the development tool.
                                           Yes
>
>4. Operating system (interface): 
>
>Would an operating system that could handle different syntaxes 
>(assuming a syntax was a slightly different version of the same 
>language), have any utility, even in theory? 

 I think they may mean, "it can deal with database queries 
 in manufacturer A's syntax, or manufacturer B's slightly
 different syntax" (...of Structured Query Language?).

 Yes, that's very useful. Especially if some of your older
 continuing applications were written for Mfr A databases.
 and others for Mfr B databases !!!!!


>5. Portability:
>
>I thought the attempts at a universal operating system, i.e. 
>Unix, and universal languages, i.e. Java, ADA, have covered this 
>ground about as much as it can be, and that the Unix operating 
>system(s) and the ADA language never really did become portable, 
>but Java actually came pretty close, although it still requires 
>native methods.

 No, Java type solutions to portability are good in some ways
 and crap in others; C/Unix type solutions to portability are
 crap in some ways and good in other ways. Nothing will be
 as FAST or EFFICIENT in operation as the C/Unix way.... 
 but then that won't ever be so STANDARD or QUICK-TO-CODE
 as the Java way.  Horses for courses.

>6. API:
>
>Finally, what is an API? I thought that an application program 
>interface (API) was the methods and data of a class or interface 
>that was included in the Java SDK, or Java Beans. In other 
>words each class or interface (in the library) had its own API. 
>Recently I've heard API referred in the context of a whole 
>package, like Java Beans, (e.g. the Java Beans API), or even in 
>the context of a browser, i.e. Netscape, providing an API.

 "Application Program Interface":  a means by which other applications
 can call up functions in the operating system, or browser, or whatever.

 Windoze has an API.  Java has a standard API on all platforms.



 Does this help?   Hope so, anyway.


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