Programming Language question...

[tfinch2]

Question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of considering a library to be part of a language definition as opposed to it being considered part of a language implementation?

I'm pretty clear on the difference between a language definition and implementation, but I'm not really sure on what the question is exactly asking...

 

[mundane]

First impression, they're asking the benefits/costs between having just an API defined for a language feature (leaving implementation to third parties) versus have a specific binary included by the language author. I'd look at comparing some of the Java features - Collections are a library, part of the language definition, while something like the java.sql.Driver is just an interface, requiring you to supply the actual jar implementation for your database vendor.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Seems like an exam/HW question

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Seems like an exam/HW question

It is a homework question, last one at that too.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: diegoalcatraz
First impression, they're asking the benefits/costs between having just an API defined for a language feature (leaving implementation to third parties) versus have a specific binary included by the language author. I'd look at comparing some of the Java features - Collections are a library, part of the language definition, while something like the java.sql.Driver is just an interface, requiring you to supply the actual jar implementation for your database vendor.

Nailed it.