On 5/1/2014 9:49 AM, Joe Touch wrote:
On 5/1/2014 8:26 AM, Thomas Nadeau wrote:
On May 1, 2014:11:02 AM, at 11:02 AM, Joe Touch <touch@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On 5/1/2014 5:12 AM, Thomas Nadeau wrote:
APIs are not that useful unless there is code behind them.
Ultimately, yes. But the code represents an instance of the API.
That depends on your perspective. These days the code IS the API, in
particular open source code. Standards bodies do not need to define the
APIs; implementation communities do that already. The IETF should
probably stick to on-the-wire protocols.
A protocol is defined by:
- internal state
- message "on the wire" formats
- upper layer events
- lower layer events (message arrivals/departures)
- time events
- rules to relate the above
(e.g., like a Mealy machine spec.)
Leave any of the 6 above out and you have an incomplete spec.
(and an email typo ;-)
The "on the wire" part is only a fraction of what's needed. If you don't
believe that, then write a TCP implementation from the header format
alone, and let's see how well it works.
Joe