OT: definition of "ABI" (was Re: ABI change. Was Autobuilder needed?)

[Sean Neakums <sneakums@zork.net>]

begin  Philip Charles quotation:

>>From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
>
>   Application Binary Interface
>
>      <programming> (ABI) The interface by which an {application
>      program} gains access to {operating system} and other
>      services.  It should be possible to run the same compiled
>      {binary} applications on any system with the right ABI.
>
>      Examples are {88open}'s {Binary Compatibility Standard}, the
>      {PowerOpen Environment} and {Windows sockets}.
>
>      (1994-11-08)

That sounds more like a definition of an *API* to me.  My
understanding is that the ABI is at a lower level, and defines how
parameters are passed into functions and system calls, and how to call
system calls (which register to put the syscall number in, and which
trap to use, etc.).  I'm not familiar with the referenced documents,
but the titles of the first two suggest that they are ABI definitions,
whereas Winsock is definitely an API.

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