ok... so an API is like a lower level framework? wikipedia states
that Carbon and Cocoa are APIs on Mac, but i always thought those were
frameworks.
The terms are thrown around loosely. Here is how I would define them:
The API is the design or *blueprint* that tell you how to interact
with another body of code.
The framework is the actual code that *implements* the blueprint and
that you link with.
For example, you write your code using the Cocoa APIs (e.g., the
function calls to the code), but when you link your program, you link
it against *some* library/framework that implements those calls. It
could be Apple's implementation, but in theory, you could link it
against someone else's implementation. There was a brief period in
time when NeXT was promoting OpenStep -- an open standard for what has
now become Cocoa, and at least one group was writing a library to
implement it for X windows I believe. Sun was supposed to adopt
OpenStep as their API, but they got all wrapped up with Java and
abandoned OpenStep... now look where they are. :)
A better example is the UNIX APIs, which allows you to write your code
using a standard set of library/system calls, and then you can build
your program on multiple systems using multiple implementations of the
API.
Todd
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